Online Gamers Tackle DNA, Exoplanets Next

Posted May 20th, 2016 at 11:05 am (UTC-5)
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A screenshot of the Project Discovery interface EVE Online gamers use while tackling science challenges. (Project Discovery in EVE Online by CCP)

A screenshot of the Project Discovery interface EVE Online gamers use while tackling science challenges. (Project Discovery in EVE Online by CCP)

A Massively Multiplayer Online Science (MMOS) partnership that recently recruited EVE Online gamers to identify protein distribution patterns in human cells, has teamed up with the University of Geneva for new research that could be added to the game’s Project Discovery, a joint venture with CCP Games and the Human Protein Atlas.

It is possible that we will put this research project into EVE Online and into the exoplanet MOOC [Massive Online Open Course] of the Geneva University [at] the same time, thus connecting games and education. I see super-interesting synergies there!

Attila Szantner, CEO of Massively Multiplayer Online Science (MMOS), said the new research projects, ranging from exoplanets to DNA/RNA alignment, will involve the exoplanet research group at the University of Geneva, once headed by the discoverer of the first exoplanet, Michel Mayor.

The concept is the same as the one used in EVE – an existing, large and highly-motivated online community solving virtual problems. “We give them the possibility to work on something that has a real world relevance,” said Szantner in an email.

Techtonics caught up with Szantner to learn how scientific research or ‘citizen science’ ended up in the hands of gamers.

I always like to stress that citizen science is partly scientific crowdsourcing, but equally important – it is an amazing tool in scientific outreach

Q. When did science discover the ‘beneficial’ side of gamers?

Szantner: I was always fascinated by the concept of citizen science and gamification, and we shared this enthusiasm with my partner in MMOS – Bernard Revaz. About two years ago in Geneva, we had an evening sitting on the balcony and talking about these subjects. And we came up with the concept of Massively Multiplayer Online Science to connect scientific research and video games as a seamless gaming experience. We immediately knew that it is something very important and if we do it right, it will be the next big thing in citizen science.

… Online citizen science projects utilize gamification heavily, and they do an amazing job. However, often gamification is just a little spice on the top. MMOS is the first attempt where it is part of the core concept. We don’t even call it gamification. It is games, really.

A screenshot from Project Discovery shows the corporation achievement window that tells EVE Online playershow far they have progressed in their research. (Project Discovery in EVE Online by CCP)

A screenshot from Project Discovery shows the corporation achievement window that tells EVE Online playershow far they have progressed in their research. (Project Discovery in EVE Online by CCP)

Q. What were the players asked to do?

Szantner: The first implementation of our concept is Project Discovery, that we did together with EVE Online and the Human Protein Atlas. … The task of the gamers in Project Discovery is to analyze microscopic images from the Subcellular Human Protein Atlas, localizing proteins in the cell.

The following are very important:

  • … We believe that the motivation to help science is very important
  • Seamless integration means that it is completely integrated visually, lore-wise and also with the reward system. So in EVE, players are helping an in-game NPC corporation – Sisters of EVE – and get ISK and Analysis Kredits [both are in-game currencies] for their efforts.

Q. Have you completed the project?

Szantner: I wouldn’t say that the Human Protein Atlas project is completed already, but players have analyzed the first quarter million images in about a month, which is an amazing result in citizen science. At Fanfest – the annual player convention of EVE Online – we made a presentation about Project Discovery. We had 8 million classifications in less than two months’ time. That is mind-blowing.

Q. How solid are the results?

Szantner: The results seem to be very promising. There are areas where players’ contributions are super-helpful, like finding special protein patterns called ‘Rings and rods,’ or refining categories. There are of course some protein locations which are really hard to identify. Here we try to improve the training tasks, and the research team is continuously communicating with the players and giving them help and feedback.

Q. Are the gamers volunteers?

Szantner:… This is an opt-in feature in EVE Online. You can have a perfect gaming experience without ever opening the Project Discovery interface. So yes, in that sense, the players are volunteers.

Q. Do you create your own games for research?

Szantner: We are not planning to do that – of course never say never. The reason is simple: when we came up with the concept of Massively Multiplayer Online Science, one of the arguments was that a small team doesn’t have the resources, the expertise, the know-how to create such an engaging game as EVE Online, for example. So our approach is to find already existing online communities and convert a small fraction of their activities to something that is useful in real life with the help of the pros of the game industry.

In March we officially announced our cooperation with the industry giant Gearbox Software to integrate MMOS with their titles – probably the popular Borderlands series. … Randy Pitchford, Founder and President of Gearbox, is a huge fan and supporter of the concept, and we plan to have a project kickoff in the following months.

Q. Where do you go from here?

Szantner: … The kind of outreach we managed to make with Project Discovery is unprecedented. Not only that players are super-active and have a hands-on experience of analyzing these beautiful microscopic images, but the content they created [was] amazing. There [was] even a poem contest. … Memes arose, like Cytoplasm it! This is the kind of engagement in scientific outreach scientists dream of.

… This is the first time that a serious game is integrated in a major AAA video game. This is the first time that an acting scientist gets a character in [a] game. And also at Fanfest we made the first ever citizen science PvP tournament, Science Off! And last, but not least, this is the first time that high-profile journals – like Nature Methods – publish screenshots from a video game.

Aida Akl
Aida Akl is a journalist working on VOA's English Webdesk. She has written on a wide range of topics, although her more recent contributions have focused on technology. She has covered both domestic and international events since the mid-1980s as a VOA reporter and international broadcaster.

China’s Fake Online Posts; Shenzhen’s Bright High-tech Future

Posted May 19th, 2016 at 11:38 am (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

FILE - A man holds an iPhone as he visits Sina's Weibo microblogging site in Shanghai, China. (Reuters)

FILE – A man holds an iPhone as he visits Sina’s Weibo microblogging site in Shanghai, China. (Reuters)

Study: China Fakes 488 Million Social Media Comments a Year

A Harvard University study says the Chinese government fabricates up to 488 million social media comments every year – the equivalent of a day of global tweets – to distract its citizens from sensitive political issues. Harvard scholars started their study with a Chinese propaganda outfit called the Fifty Cent Party. The online group is tasked with highlighting positive trends that favor Beijing and the symbols of its Communist regime.

China’s High-Tech Future Emerges in Shenzhen

The future of China’s technology is shaping up in Shenzhen – a region near Hong Kong that was formerly concerned with fishing. The region is home to millions of migrant workers, and many of China’s tech companies already have their headquarters there. Now, young Chinese tech entrepreneurs are looking toward Shenzhen to shape their future.

Privacy or Security? Behavioral Biometrics Try to Prevent Online Account Takeover

A new product from Mobile identity solutions provider TeleSign enables web and mobile apps to analyze users’ behavior and provide continuous authentication. This means various behavioral patters, including the way you use your mouse and keyboard and how you behave online, are collected on a continuous basis. The company says the technology is very accurate. How it affects the last vestiges of privacy remains to be seen.

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Aida Akl
Aida Akl is a journalist working on VOA's English Webdesk. She has written on a wide range of topics, although her more recent contributions have focused on technology. She has covered both domestic and international events since the mid-1980s as a VOA reporter and international broadcaster.

Foxconn Nabs Nokia Dumbphone Brand; LinkedIn Data Posted for Sale

Posted May 18th, 2016 at 11:48 am (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

A motorcyclist rides past the entrance of the headquarters of Foxconn, in Tucheng, New Taipei city. Taiwan. (Reuters)

A motorcyclist rides past the entrance of the headquarters of Foxconn, in Tucheng, New Taipei city. Taiwan. Foxconn is best known for making iPhones.(Reuters)

Why a Taiwanese Company Is Paying $350 Million to Build Nokia Dumbphones

Microsoft announced Wednesday it is selling its featurephone Nokia brand to Foxconn, a Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer best known as the manufacturer of iPhones. Old fashioned featurephones, also known as dumbphones, are still very popular around the world and show no signs of retreating. Foxconn hopes to capitalize on that.

Hacker Is Selling 167 Million Stolen LinkedIn User Records

If you were wondering what happens to your personal information once hackers get their hands on it, here is a glimpse of the sordid scenario. One hacker has put up an announcement on a dark market website asking for five bitcoins or $2,200 for a dump of emails, IDs and other information stolen from 167 million LinkedIn users.

Google’s Biggest Event of the Year Begins Today: Here’s What to Expect

Google kicks off its annual I/O conference Wednesday in California. The event will lay out the framework for the company’s future and show off some of its new technologies, including virtual reality. The impending merger of the Android mobile operating system with the Chrome Internet browser and Google’s ‘Moonshot’ research projects will also be in the spotlight.

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Aida Akl
Aida Akl is a journalist working on VOA's English Webdesk. She has written on a wide range of topics, although her more recent contributions have focused on technology. She has covered both domestic and international events since the mid-1980s as a VOA reporter and international broadcaster.

Chinese Proposals Tighten Internet Control; Law Firm Hires AI Robot

Posted May 17th, 2016 at 11:26 am (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

FILE - A man in central Beijing drinks water beside a billboard promoting one of China's most popular websites in central Beijing.

FILE – A man in central Beijing drinks water beside a billboard promoting one of China’s most popular websites. New rules being proposed in China would require domain names to be registered – and filtered – through government-licensed entities.

US: Proposed Chinese Regulations Could Fragment the Internet

China is planning to push forward with new proposals requiring domain names to be registered through government-licensed providers. If the new rules are approved, they would also prevent some websites whose content is broadly defined as prohibited from registering. In a statement, U.S. officials expressed concern over the differing interpretations of the vague language of the proposals.

Eight-year-old Virus Still Infecting Thousands of PCs

According to Check Point security researchers, a malware strain that first hit Windows PCs more than eight years ago is still alive and well, and continues to strike unsuspecting users. The virus, known as Conficker, continues to spread even though Microsoft patched it in 2008.

Legal Firms Hire AI Robotic Assistants

LONald is a robot that extracts data and enters it into a spreadsheet while cross-checking for accuracy and duplication much faster than any human might. The robot, a product of startup RAVN Systems, is already at work at British law firm BLP, where it helps lawyers focus their energies on strategic reviews rather than structuring data.

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Aida Akl
Aida Akl is a journalist working on VOA's English Webdesk. She has written on a wide range of topics, although her more recent contributions have focused on technology. She has covered both domestic and international events since the mid-1980s as a VOA reporter and international broadcaster.

In the Right Hands, This Game Teaches Kids About Cybersecurity

Posted May 13th, 2016 at 10:52 am (UTC-5)
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When Matt Trobbiani created Hacknet, it was intended as a game, no more, no less — until he discovered it was being used to train cyber warfare teams. Now, he is testing educational versions of the game to teach school kids and would-be sleuths about cybersecurity.

It started out at a game-jam competition as a prototype for a terminal simulator. There are no protagonists or roles to play. Players are left one-on-one with a computer terminal to puzzle out the story of a deceased hacker whose death may or may not have been an accident. They have to stealthily tunnel their way through the computer system and uncover clues, or lacking the skill, alert security to their intrusion and subsequent failure.

In the process, they learn about the Linux programming language, terminal commands, and the power of hacking tools and techniques.

A screenshot from the game, 'Hacknet' shows a message that players read to get hints about targeted systems available missions. The design is intended to replicate message boards linked to anonymous hackers. (Matt Trobbiani)

A screenshot from the game, ‘Hacknet’ shows a message that players read to glean hints about targeted systems and available missions. The design is intended to replicate message boards linked to anonymous hackers. (Matt Trobbiani)

When Trobbiani built the core of the game during the competition, he had no intention of producing an educational product. As it turned out, that effort, “combined with the two-and-a-half-year process of refinement and experimentation” to finish the game, “brought something different and important to the project,” he said in an email.

But the game took a U-turn after Trobbiani ran into U.S. Pacific Command security experts and discovered they were using it to train their cyber warfare teams.

That’s how MET Professional Academy instructor Martin Bencic first heard about it. When he met with cyber warfare instructors, though, who were also using it, he was “cautiously leery of students using a game.”

After trying it out himself, he found it to be a “tremendous resource to test students’ ability to infiltrate networks” and give them the “same tools that the bad guys use in a safe environment.”

“Many of the tools are intrusive and will generate an exorbitant amount of traffic and noise across a traditional network,” he said in an email. “I could only tell students what would take place in a network setting if these tools were deployed. This pales in comparison to actually performing the tasks. Students use actual UNIX commands similar to those in Kali Linux, without bringing down our district network in the process.”

Another screenshot from shows hacking activity from the game 'Hacknet.' (Matt Trobbiani)

Another screenshot shows hacking and system-infiltration activity from the game ‘Hacknet.’ (Matt Trobbiani)

Blogger and entrepreneur Mentor Palokaj has also used the game to teach 16-year-old to 22-year-old students basic terminal commands. But Bencic notes that Hacknet provides would-be security experts with foundational skills to help them pursue cybersecurity careers, which are in high demand.

“Students must be able to apply both technical and ethical decision-making in very real world scenarios,” he said. “The program is immersive and requires increased speed and retention of the complexity associated with cybersecurity. It provides future network administrators with insights that are not possible in a traditional classroom setting.”

Given the interest in using Hacknet for training and education, Trobbiani is currently testing educational versions in schools around the world to ensure “the right approach and structure for effective classroom use,” he said.

“It is imperative to provide as [many] hands-on opportunities for students to show they have the skills needed to protect our reliance on the Internet,” Bencic underscored.

Aida Akl
Aida Akl is a journalist working on VOA's English Webdesk. She has written on a wide range of topics, although her more recent contributions have focused on technology. She has covered both domestic and international events since the mid-1980s as a VOA reporter and international broadcaster.

Drones to Take Over More Human Jobs; FBI Eyes Messaging Encryption

Posted May 12th, 2016 at 12:00 pm (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

A Zipline delivery drone launches during a flight demonstration at an undisclosed location in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, U.S., May 5, 2016. (Reuters)

A Zipline delivery drone launches during a flight demonstration at an undisclosed location in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, May 5, 2016. (Reuters)

Drones Could Replace $127 Billion Worth of Human Labor

Drones could take over human jobs in infrastructure, agriculture and services sectors by 2030. A new report from PwC predicts drones, already on the job in some fields, could replace $127 billion worth of human labor. Evidence suggests robots could replace about 50 percent of all jobs within the next few decades.

FBI Has Sights on Larger Battle Over Encryption After Apple Feud

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is getting ready to take on encrypted text messages and emails after procuring a hacking tool to access at least one iPhone that belonged to a California mass shooter. But that’s only part of the story. FBI Director James Comey said services that encrypt texts, e-mails and other data are also “hugely significant” for national security investigations.

Google Plans to Map Building Interiors in 3-D

Google already has maps for just about everything under the sun. But its latest, rather ambitious endeavor, called Tango, will use cameras, sensors and other software on Android devices to map the interior of buildings as well. Once pointed at a target, the application will take pictures and recreate the environment on screen. Google hopes the effort will lure developers to create new virtual reality applications.

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Aida Akl
Aida Akl is a journalist working on VOA's English Webdesk. She has written on a wide range of topics, although her more recent contributions have focused on technology. She has covered both domestic and international events since the mid-1980s as a VOA reporter and international broadcaster.

Facebook Reassures Thai Users After Arrests; UK Hospital Hires Watson

Posted May 11th, 2016 at 12:36 pm (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

Harit Mahaton (C) and Natthika Worathaiyawich (rear), two of eight activists who were jailed after posting critical comments on Facebook, arrive to a crime suppression division after being charged with violating the royal defamation law, in Bangkok, Thailand, May 11, 2016. (Reuters)

Harit Mahaton (C) and Natthika Worathaiyawich (rear), two of eight activists jailed after posting critical comments on Facebook, arrive to a crime suppression division after being charged with violating the royal defamation law, in Bangkok, Thailand, May 11, 2016. (Reuters)

Facebook Tells Thai Users Their Data Not Given to Government

Recent arrests for violations of Thailand’s Computer Crime Act have sparked fears Facebook might have failed to protect user privacy from the country’s military government. But Facebook issued a statement to reassure users it has not shared their information with the government and that it publicly lists government requests for user data.

IBM Watson-powered App Aims to Make Hospital Visits Less Daunting for Young Patients

Watson – IBM’s artificial intelligence marvel – is coming to a hospital in Britain for the first time to help improve patient experience. The mobile app will feature Watson’s computer system and cognitive abilities. It is part of a collaboration that aims to develop Britain’s fist ‘cognitive’ hospital.

UK Startup Aims to Make Children Fearless About Technology

A British wearable devices startup called Technology Will Save Us wants to teach kids to approach technology without fear by giving them hardware kits to build their own stuff. The kits allow children to put together basic devices and provides them with online instructions and help. The company hopes to make this a fun experience while introducing kids to programmable technology.

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Aida Akl
Aida Akl is a journalist working on VOA's English Webdesk. She has written on a wide range of topics, although her more recent contributions have focused on technology. She has covered both domestic and international events since the mid-1980s as a VOA reporter and international broadcaster.

US Congress Targeted With Ransomware; Facebook Denies Censoring Content

Posted May 10th, 2016 at 12:45 pm (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

A woman walks by a miniature of the Capitol building at the Hart Senate Office Building at Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 20, 2016.

A woman walks by a miniature of the Capitol building at the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 20, 2016.

Congress Warned About Cybersecurity After Attempted Ransomware Attack on House

The U.S. House of Representatives’ technology staff warned legislators that their third-party email apps were increasingly being targeted by malware attacks. In an internal email obtained by TechCrunch, the staff advised legislators that access to YahooMail and Gmail will be blocked on the House network. But a spokesperson for the House Chief Administrative Officer declined to say if the attacks were successful or if ransom was paid.

Baidu CEO to Put ‘Values Before Profits’ After Outrage Over Student Death

Robin Lee, the CEO of China’s biggest search ad business Baidu urged staff to put ‘values before profit’ after a government regulator ordered the company to cut back on ads that appear in search results and may not be clearly marked. The incident follows public uproar over the case of 21-year-old student Wei Zexi, who died after taking part in a failed experimental treatment for cancer advertised on Baidu.

Facebook Denies Censoring Conservative News

Facebook has denied allegations by a former employee that the social media giant deliberately omitted conservative topics from its popular ‘trending’ section. In a statement, Facebook said it has rigorous guidelines in place to ensure political neutrality and include perspectives from across the political spectrum.

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Aida Akl
Aida Akl is a journalist working on VOA's English Webdesk. She has written on a wide range of topics, although her more recent contributions have focused on technology. She has covered both domestic and international events since the mid-1980s as a VOA reporter and international broadcaster.

Mobile Technology Is Changing Clinical Studies Landscape

Posted May 6th, 2016 at 10:53 am (UTC-5)
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File - Dr. Michael V. McConnell, a cardiologist who uses an app to study heart disease, poses with his smartphone outside the Stanford Medical School in Stanford, California, July 7, 2015. Scientists like McConnell who are overseeing studies that use specialized iPhone apps say they have the potential to transform medical research by helping them collect data routinely from far more people than usually participate in health studies. (AP)

File – Dr. Michael V. McConnell, a cardiologist who uses an app to study heart disease, poses with his smartphone outside the Stanford Medical School in Stanford, California, July 7, 2015. Scientists like McConnell who are overseeing studies that use specialized iPhone apps say they have the potential to transform medical research by collecting data routinely from more people than usually participate in clinical studies. (AP)

Mobile technology is giving experts the tools they need to expand clinical studies and collect a wealth of data for medical research. But this approach faces challenges and is unlikely to supplant traditional clinical research.

“Consumer technologies, apps, wearables – all of those things basically are entering into and [are] being accepted into the biomedical research enterprise,” said Brad Smith, Director of Policy at FasterCures, a non-profit action tank focused on accelerating medical research.

Using wearable devices, health platforms such as Apple’s mobile ResearchKit, clinical researchers can create specialized apps to collect real-time data for longitudinal studies to better understand disease progression, or even how the normal brain works.

“You can actually collect data every day, maybe every hour, for example using the smartphone or other device,” said Smith. “And that data can be uploaded into the clinical trial data system and it essentially allows you to collect potentially much richer, much more high frequency data at a much lower cost.”

In some cases, traditional clinical studies can be prohibitively expensive. “Imagine a study where you enroll thousands of people and collect data on them for 50 or 60 years … It’s very, very expensive,” said Paul Tarini, Senior Program Officer with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which funds health research.

Rather than mailing out thousands of paper applications, researchers can register volunteers and obtain their informed consent for healthcare intervention on mobile devices. And instead of driving long distances in some cases to reach a research facility, volunteers can now use their smartphones to participate.

During a recent asthma study, Dr. Eric Schadt, Founding Director of the Icahn Institute at Mount Sinai in New York, put the feasibility of mobile clinical research to the test.

A screenshot shows various features of the health app used in Mount Sinai's Asthma Mobile Health study in New York. (Icahn Institute at Mount Sinai)

A screenshot shows various features of the health app used in Mount Sinai’s Asthma Mobile Health study in New York. (Icahn Institute at Mount Sinai)

“One of the primary goals of our Asthma Mobile Health study,” he said in an email, “was to determine if it is feasible to conduct clinical research using a smartphone, specifically, electronic recruitment, electronic consent, remote enrollment of subjects into a study, and collection of study data, without any direct contact with study investigators.”

The mobile study enrolled up to 10,000 participants without direct, in-person contact. Thousands more downloaded the research app and met the rigorous eligibility criteria. The research also broke the geographic barrier that typically limits traditional studies to a local area of a university or medical center. So while volunteers living far from a research site might be reluctant to make the trip, those participating in the mobile asthma study represented all 50 U.S. states.

Schadt said the “ubiquity of the iPhone” enabled researchers to “recruit ‘wide and deep’ in a way that would match a far more expensive, national clinical study done in the traditional manner– enrolling people [in a direct way, with research personnel] in every state.”

In another case funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, non-profit Sage Bionetworks reached more than 9,000 volunteers for a Parkinson’s study using Apple’s ResearchKit. Sage has been studying fluctuations associated with Parkinson’s, a disease that causes tremors and impacts mobility and memory, on an ongoing basis.

A screenshot from Sage Bionetworks' mPower mobile app shows some of the agility tests that Parkinson's patients can do to measure their dexterity over time. (Sage Bionetworks)

A screenshot from Sage Bionetworks’ Parkinson’s mobile app shows some of the agility tests that Parkinson’s patients can do to measure their dexterity over time. (Sage Bionetworks)

Parkinson’s patients can experience dexterity fluctuations that vary greatly over time. An occasional visit to the doctor might not be enough to gauge the extent of the fluctuations, whereas daily tracking of walking, for example, will show them more clearly.

But mobile clinical research is still in its early stages, and there are challenges that have to be met before it goes mainstream.

While Sage, Mount Sinai and other researchers have already published their findings, research using mobile platforms is still not published in large quantities in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Researchers also lack the ability to deploy their apps across all mobile platforms and must ensure that all participants have access to smartphones. They need new skill sets to analyze the vast wealth of information coming in from both active questionnaires and passive data collection such as GPS location information and other indicators.

Until those issues are addressed, it is unlikely that clinical research on mobile devices will replace traditional methods, said Smith. There will be situations where participants still have to go to a medical facility for tests.

Researchers are trying to determine the best cases where mobile studies can be done with maximum value, and how the data can be analyzed, interpreted and shared to benefit both researchers and participants – and more importantly, protected.

With all of this massive sharing going on, Schadt said securing the collected data is a priority that cannot be taken for granted and “will require ongoing scrutiny and vigilance from scientific research teams.”

While it is impossible to guarantee 100 percent security, particularly with data gathered over years and decades, Smith said researchers are focused on finding ways to secure the information and respond quickly if the need arises. He said building this kind of trust between researchers and participants is crucial if mobile technology is going to be the future of clinical research, as he believes it will be.

“It is really going to change the way that biomedical research is done,” he said.

More than that, added Tarini, is that the “ability to conduct research where the smartphone is the data collection device, really starts to democratize research. It opens it up … It just makes it able for many more people to participate. And that’s a tremendous benefit.”

Aida Akl
Aida Akl is a journalist working on VOA's English Webdesk. She has written on a wide range of topics, although her more recent contributions have focused on technology. She has covered both domestic and international events since the mid-1980s as a VOA reporter and international broadcaster.

Spy Hacking Group Targets Asia; Elderly Find Refuge in Technology

Posted May 5th, 2016 at 11:08 am (UTC-5)
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Today’s Tech Sightings:

FILE - Participants from government ministries and agencies take part in the Cyber Defense Exercise with Recurrence (CYDER) in Tokyo September 25, 2013. (Reuters)

FILE – Participants from government ministries and agencies take part in the Cyber Defense Exercise with Recurrence (CYDER) in Tokyo September 25, 2013. (Reuters)

Spy Hacking Group Targeting Asian Governments Spotted

Microsoft’s latest Security Intelligence Report says hackers have been spying on Asian governments since 2009. Dubbed PLATINUM, this particular hacking group has carried out a number of cyber espionage campaigns against government and private targets in Asia, according to Tim Rains, security editor of the Microsoft website. The company has also found the highest rates of malware attacks in Asia, particularly in Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and the Palestinian territories.

For the Aging, Home May Be Where the Technology Is

Social isolation can be deadly, particularly for older, immobile populations. But technology is now making it easier for home-bound elderly people to keep in touch with loved ones across the miles and get the healthcare they need remotely. In a recent Bask survey, up to 80 percent of participants 50 years and older said technology was helping them live longer in their homes.

Study: Teachers ‘Stressed-out’ by Technology

Believe it or not, your favorite gadgets can be stressful. According to a new Turkish study, men are more likely to suffer the effects of “techno stress” than women in four out of five stress categories. The research found men stressing out over time management and comprehension, while half of the surveyed women felt stress due to problems with the technology they were using.

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Aida Akl
Aida Akl is a journalist working on VOA's English Webdesk. She has written on a wide range of topics, although her more recent contributions have focused on technology. She has covered both domestic and international events since the mid-1980s as a VOA reporter and international broadcaster.