Using body heat from crowds to heat buildings

Stockholm Central Station

Two projects in Europe are using geothermal systems to make the most out of the body heat from commuting crowds.

Swedish realtor Jernhusen is investing in renovations of Stockholm Central Station, which will include a geothermal system that captures the body heat from the station’s 250,000 daily commuters to use in nearby offices.

Heat exchangers in the ventilation system will convert surplus low-grade body heat into hot water, which will then be pumped to heat office space in the nearby Kungsbrohuset building, also owned by Jernhusen. The plans, due for completion in June 2012, also include the replacement of all lighting in the station with LEDs, with the aim of obtaining Green Building certification.

The system could reduce the energy costs of the office block by up to 25% – a significant saving given Sweden’s cold winters and costly gas. The common ownership of the two buildings makes the transfer of energy a clear win, but – says Klas Johnasson, one of the developers – if real estate owners collaborate, there’s no reason why the project could not be replicated on a commercial basis.

Stockholm Central Station

A similar project is underway at the Paris Metro’s Rambuteau station. While this project will generate heat from commuters, it will also use heat from the moving trains to provide heating for a nearby public housing project.

These projects are great because they’re gathering energy that would otherwise be wasted. But they are also only practical in dense, walkable cities where crowds are normal and the harnessed energy doesn’t need to travel far. So is there hope to see this technology on a larger scale?

Forum for the Future’s Head of Built Environment, Martin Hunt, notes that “Geothermal technologies have been around for a long time and are commercially viable. It looks like this application of heat recapture technology will only make sense in busy public spaces, but if the numbers stack up I can see it could be used on a wider scale.”

Creepy new Air Force camera can identify and track you from far, far away

Sure you can do neat things like unlock your iPhone using facial recognition, but the Air Force has fargrander visions for the tech. Specifically it wants a camera that can identify and track possible insurgents at a significant distance (though it's unclear how far we're talking about here) using only a few seconds of footage. It's turned to Photon-X Inc. to develop a sensor that combines spacial measurements, infrared and visible light to create a "bio-signature" that maps not only static facial features but muscle movements that are unique to each individual. The technology could also be used in targeting systems to identify enemy vehicles and integrated into robots to help them navigate and identify objects... or threatening meatbags. The Air Force even foresees law enforcement, banks, and private security firms using the cams to monitor customers and watch for suspicious activity. Similar tools have been created that use software to analyze video feeds, but they can't match the accuracy or range of this "behaviormetric" system. Normally, this is where we'd make some snide reference to Skynet or Big Brother but, honestly, we're too creeped out for jokes.

MeeGo 1.2 lands for netbooks and tablets, leaves handsets hanging on the telephone

Just because Nokia has done everything short of taping a "Dear John" letter to MeeGo's mirror doesn't mean the OS is dead. In fact, Intel's Linux-based baby just got a refresh to version 1.2. So what's new this go around? Well, primarily it's under the hood stuff, like improved Atom support and bug fixes out the ying yang. New audio and networking stacks have also been added for A2DP streaming and HSPA+ support. The tablet UI that Intel was showing off in February is has arrived, to complement the standard netbook version and the in-car interface. Sadly, the handset edition was left out of this update. Those eager to dip their toes in the MeeGo water can download the latest version at the source link.

HP rolls out budget-minded Pavilion g6s laptop with Sandy Bridge

HP has already rolled out a few new Sandy Bridge laptops this month, but it's now back with yet another: the Pavilion g6s. Like the still-available g6t and g6x, this one packs a 15.6-inch display with a rather lowly 1,366 x 768 resolution, but you can now get that paired with your choice of Core i3, i5 or i7 Sandy Bridge processors. Otherwise, you'll get some fairly respectable specs across the board, including up 6GB of RAM, up to a 750GB hard drive, and optional Radeon HD 6470M graphics -- not to mention your choice of four different color options. Of course, cost is still the main concern with the g6 series, and this one keeps things in check with a starting price of $550.

HTC Evo 3D, View 4G available for pre-order at Sprint

Sprint customers holding out for the HTC Evo 3D can now inch slightly closer to that glasses-free display -- without dropping by RadioShack. The carrier has confirmed that you can reserve the WiMAX handset by visiting a Sprint-owned retail store and plunking down $50 for a gift card. There's still no word on when you'll be able to get the device in-hand (and the 3D's exclusive carrier is mum on pricing), but, if you don't mind reserving a phone without any hint as to how much you'll eventually need to pay, then Sprint seems happy enough to swap your Grant for a spot on the list. It's also taking names for the Evo View 4G tablet and, like the 3D, that $50 deposit can be used to take a bite out of a 2D handset. You know, in case you decide that a third dimension is too hot to handle.

Microsoft readies 'Austin,' an Azure-hosted event-processing service

Microsoft is continuing to move some of its SQL Server capabilities to the cloud and turn them into services.

The latest to join the coming SQL Azure services line-up — alongside the already announced (but still undelivered) SQL Azure Reporting Services— is complex-event processing. The cloud version of this capability is known as codename “Austin,” according to a couple of new Microsoft blog posts this week.

(For those codename buffs keeping track at home, this isn’t the first time Microsoft has used “Austin” as a codename. Version 2.0 of Microsoft’s now-defunct ResponsePoint VOIP/telephony software for small businesses, also was codenamed “Austin.”)

But back to the new Austin. Austin will be the service version of the StreamInsight complex-event-processing capabilities that are in SQL Server today. Complex event processing “enables real time insight into vast volumes of streaming data,” according to Microsoft’s explanation, which is distinct from, but related to, business intelligence, which “enables analytics and insight into a set of existing data to inform future decision making.”

Austin is being released in private Community Technology Preview (CTP) form now, but will be available as a public CTP, available from the SQL Azure Labs Site, in the second half of the year, the Softies told attendees of the TechEd 2011 conference this week. Microsoft isn’t sharing publicly a release target for the final version of Austin.

By hosting StreamInsight on the Windows Azure platform, Microsoft will allow customers and partners “to build event-driven applications where the analysis of the events is performed in the cloud,” explained Zane Adam, a Microsoft General Manager of  Azure and Middleware, in a May 15 blog post.

Among some of the potential scenarios where Austin could be used, as envisioned by Microsoft:

• Collecting data from manufacturing applications (e.g. real-time events from plant-floor devices and sensors)
• Financial trading applications (e.g. monitoring and capitalizing on current market conditions with very short windows of opportunity)
• Web analytics (e.g. immediate click-stream pattern detection and response with targeted advertising.)
• “Smart grid” management (e.g. infrastructure for managing electric grids and other utilities, such as immediate response to variations in energy to minimize or avoid outages or other disruptions of service).

Microsoft is pitching Austin as helping customers from having to implement complex event processing on-premises themselves, “but more importantly, be able to collect and process events from anywhere on the planet and derive trends from a vastly increased series of events since that data is sent to the cloud.”

In other SQL Azure-related news this week, Microsoft officials said the company has released its May 2011 service update for SQL Azure, which includes four new updates:

• SQL Azure Management REST API – a web API for managing SQL Azure servers
• Multiple servers per subscription – create multiple SQL Azure servers per subscription
• JDBC Driver – updated database driver for Java applications to access SQL Server and SQL Azure
• DAC Framework 1.1 – making it easier to deploy databases and in-place upgrades on SQL Azure

Officials also told TechEd attendees this week that they are planning to add in some unspecified future SQL Azure release  the integration of import and export features in the management portal; and enhancements to the Web-based database manager (a k a, “Project Houston”) for additional schema management, and a new service for managing SQL Azure databases through an Open Data Protocol endpoint.

Microsoft made a CTP for a database import/export capability available this week, as well. This capability is designed to allow SQL Azure database users to more simply archive SQL Azure and SQL Server databases, or to migrate on-premises SQL Server databases to SQL Azure, according to company officials.

Verizon plans to kill unlimited data plans as the global iPhone 5 draws near

It’s official: Verizon’s unlimited data plans don’t have much longer to live.

The confirmation comes from Verizon CEO Fran Shammo, who told Reuters that the the unlimited data plans would be replaced by tiered service plans aimed at heavy users. Verizon’s tiered data plans would likely mimic AT&T’s own, which offer 250MB of data for $15 per month and 2GB for $25.

Shammo also said that Verizon is also preparing “mega plans” for data aimed at families. These plans, which would offer a set amount of data for one set price, would be shared among multiple phones in a household. These plans would operate in a similar fashion to Verizon’s current shared minutes plans.

Both of these changes come as Apple readies the release of the iPhone 5, which is widely expected to appear this fall. Shammo had a few interesting details on the Apple front as well. For one, the CEO confirmed a detail that most already suspected: Verizon and AT&T will get the iPhone 5 at the same time, thanks to the nifty GSM/CDMA Qualcomm chip included in the iPhone 4.

Shammo, however, could not say whether the next iPhone would take advantage of Verizon’s steadily-expanding 4G LTE network. While the consensus so far seems to point to Apple nixing LTE support, the possibly can’t be ruled out just yet. Either way, Shammo said that he isn’t concerned, and that a 4G iPhone was a bigger deal for Apple than Verizon.

Curiously, China Mobile today confirmed that it had reached a deal with Apple to offer 4G access to iPhones on its network. So don’t kill the 4G iPhone dream just yet.