Tech Universe: Monday 20 June

China is building a radio telescope with a half-kilometre dish. Photo / Thinkstock

BIG FAST: The world's largest radio telescope is under construction in China. The single dish radio telescope will be 500 metres across, and known as the Aperture Spherical radio Telescope, or FAST. Feasibility studies took 14 years, while the telescope itself will take 5.5 years to build. First light is expected to be in 2016. Shouldn't that be first sound? More here.

TAG TIME: In crime dramas they're always checking the serial number from prosthetics taken from dead bodies. But how do you find out information about a prosthetic without removing it? Why, from its RFID tag, that's how. The Ortho-Tag from University of Pittsburgh includes information about the patient, the implant, and the procedure before it's inserted. Sensors on the chip are able to gauge pressure on the implant, chemical balance and temperature of tissues, and the presence of harmful organisms. All it takes to read the data is to place a probe against the skin. That'll give the crime writers some new plot
angles. Details here.

JAMMY IDEA: More and more people are having medical devices implanted, and often the devices use wireless to communicate. Which of course opens the way to evildoers breaking in and altering the programming. MIT and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst have come up with a way to prevent such attacks by using a jamming transmitter to handle encryption and authentication. In an emergency medical personnel could still remove the jammer to communicate with the device. Whew. Imagine trying to type in a 16 digit authentication key in an emergency.
MIT has more.

PUFF AND STUFF: Those Xbox 360 and PlayStation controllers demand quite some manual dexterity — not possible for some paraplegics. The QuadControl adapter allows control via lip controls, puff and sip tubes and a head-operated joystick instead. The QuadControl adapters are hand-made by a retired aerospace engineer in Montana. The problem is that when he stops making them, there will be no more controllers. Sounds like a project for the Open Source and
maker communities. Details here and video here.

GPS BOTH WAYS: The DeLorme inReach is a two-way satellite GPS communicator to be available later this year. It sends and receives text messages or emails, if paired with an Android phone. As a standalone device it can communicate with emergency services through set signals, or send status updates at regular intervals. Don't get lost without it. here.

- Miraz Jordan knowit.co.nz