The Department of Homeland Security has announced its proposal to establish minimum standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and identification cards in compliance with the REAL ID Act of 2005. The REAL ID requirements are a result of recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission, which Congress passed into law, and will enhance the security and integrity of driver’s licenses.
The department’s proposed regulations set standards for states to meet the requirements of the REAL ID Act, including: security features that must be incorporated into each card; verification of information provided by applicants to establish their identity and lawful status in the United States; and physical security standards for locations where licenses and identification cards are issued.
As proposed, a REAL ID driver’s license will be required in order to access a federal facility, board federally-regulated commercial aircraft, and enter nuclear power plants. Because states may have difficulty complying before the May 11, 2008, deadline, DHS will grant an extension of the compliance deadline until December 31, 2009. States that have received extensions will, over the course of the waiver period, submit proposed timetables for compliance.
DHS also announced that up to 20 percent of a state’s Homeland Security Grant Program funds can be used to help implement REAL ID. This additional flexibility will be made available during the current 2007 grant cycle.
In May 2005, President Bush signed the "Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief Act” into law. Among the provisions contained in the law was the REAL ID Act.
The proposed regulations have been submitted to the Federal Register for a 60-day public comment period. To view the proposed regulations, go to www.dhs.gov.
A flat screen that can be rolled up and put into a jacket pocket - organic transistors with low energy consumption could make this possible. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart and at the Universities of Stuttgart and Erlangen have constructed complementary circuits from organic transistors characterised by low supply voltages and low consumption values. These energy-saving electronic components consist of two different transistor types. The new organic electronic components can be operated with significantly lower voltages than previous organic circuits - voltages, such as those supplied by normal household batteries from 1.5 to 3 volts (Nature, February 2007).
A new technology puts an end to the tedious business of buying shoes: Customers can now try on a variety of models in front of a virtual mirror without changing their shoes. They can navigate through the collection by simply pointing at products on a computer screen.
A Paris shop has put an end to the tiresome procedure of putting on and taking off shoes: Instead of trying on dozens of pairs, the customer simply stands in front of a virtual mirror. On his foot, he can see his favorite model with the red stripes, he then selects the gold leather alternative for comparison. This entertaining form of shopping can be found on the Avenue des Champs Elysées, where adidas has opened its most modern shop anywhere in the world. The virtual mirror was developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut HHI, in Berlin. Unlike a conventional mirror, it does not display a true reflection. Instead, a camera captures the customer’s feet and legs and displays them as a video scene on the monitor. The various shoe models are inserted into this picture. “Thanks to the 3-D image processing techniques developed at the HHI, the software is so fast that it can follow the customer’s movements in real time,” says Jürgen Rurainsky, one of the virtual mirror’s developers.
Time and frequency information can be transferred between laboratories or to other users in several ways, often using the Global Positioning System (GPS). But today's best atomic clocks are so accurate—neither gaining nor losing one second in as long as 400 million years—that more stable methods are needed. The best solution may be to use lasers to transfer data over fiber-optic cables, according to scientists at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Now that Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all have their videogame consoles in the market, the transitional phase of the console cycle is in full effect as each vendor has entered the game. What is interesting about this particular generation of gaming manufacturers is that each vendor has clearly differentiated hardware and strategies. Who will win? IDC says none of the three new consoles will dominate the market in the next five years like the PS2 dominated last cycle; however, Nintendo's Wii will outship and outsell the 360 and PS3 in 2007 and 2008.
An underwater robot, shaped like a flattened orange, maneuvered untethered and autonomously within a 115-meter-deep sinkhole during tests this month in Mexico, a prelude to its mission to probe the mysterious nether reaches of the world's deepest sinkhole.
Bill Stone, leader of the NASA-funded Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer (DEPTHX) mission, said the 2.5-meter-diameter vehicle performed "phenomenally well" during early February tests in the geothermal sinkhole, or cenote, known as La Pilita. Carnegie Mellon University researchers developed the software that guided the DEPTHX craft.