XBox to welcome Kinect 'hackers'

21 February 2011 Last updated at 15:04 ET By Rory Cellan-Jones Technology correspondent, BBC News, Seattle

Microsoft is to open up its XBox Kinect technology to allow amateur software developers to experiment with it.

The company is to release a software development kit in the spring, which will give developers access to the secrets behind the technology.

For now it will only be for personal use, but Microsoft says it will release a commercial version in due course.

Kinect, which turns the player's body into a game controller, has been a big hit since it launched last November.

It has already captured the imagination of the hacker community, which has been demonstrating various uses for the technology, including 3D photography.

Microsoft is hoping that an army of smarter developers will now find more ways to take Kinect to the next level.

"As breakthrough technologies like these reach scale, the resulting creativity and invention will open up a whole new world of possibilities for computing," said Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer.

The announcement was made during an open day at Microsoft's research centre near Seattle.

The company is hoping that the success of Kinect, developed by its own scientists, can give it a greater presence in the home entertainment field.

Anonymous targets anti-gay church

21 February 2011 Last updated at 08:51 ET

Hacker group Anonymous appears to have singled out its next target - the controvesial anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church in the US.

An open letter, purporting to be from Anonymous, accused the church of bigotry and fanaticism.

It warned that Westboro's websites would be attacked if the congregation did not stop its public protests.

In a defiant response, the church said it would not be silenced, and urged Anonymous to "bring it".

Westboro Baptist Church has been widely condemned for its aggressive anti-gay campaigning.

A number of US states have passed legislation, banning Westboro's members from protesting close to military funerals.

The church's leader, pastor Fred Phelps, was banned from entering the UK by the Home Office in 2009.

Activist hackers

Anonymous is known for its "hacktivism", targeting individuals, companies and governments whose behavior it objects to.

The group recently crashed a number of Egyptian government websites, in support of the country's pro-democracy protests.

It also attacked several online companies that it believed had helped clamp down on Wikileaks' activity, including Paypal and Amazon.

Laying out its case against Westboro Baptist Church, the letter said: "We have always regarded you and your ilk as an assembly of graceless sociopaths and maniacal chauvinists & religious zealots, however benign, who act out for the sake of attention & in the name of religion".

Despite being posted on an Anonymous news site, there was some uncertainty surrounding the provenance of the letter.

Further messages on the same website questioned its authenticity.

The confusion is understandable, according to Graham Cluley from security firm Sophos.

"Anonymous is a headless organisation," he said.

Mr Cluley warned that its followers could potentially be led into mounting a major hack under false pretenses.

"There are dangers in future that someone may pose as Anonymous and say that they want an attack".

The Westboro Baptist Church issued a statement, branding Anonymous "a puddle of pimple-faced nerds".

It called the threat a "bad miscalculation", and appeared to goad Anonymous to action, with the phrase "bring it!".

The church's website, godhatesfags.com was unavailable.

New blood pressure device hailed

20 February 2011 Last updated at 19:16 ET

A device which can be worn like a watch could revolutionise the way blood pressure is monitored in the next few years, scientists say.

Researchers at the University of Leicester and in Singapore have developed a device to measure pressure in the largest artery in the body.

Evidence shows it gives a much more accurate reading than the arm cuff.

The technology is funded by the Department of Health and backed by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.

It works by a sensor in the watch recording the pulse wave of the artery, which is then fed into a computer together with a traditional blood pressure reading from a cuff.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

This is a great example of how research breakthroughs and innovation can make a real difference to patients' lives"

End Quote Andrew Lansley Health Secretary

Scientists are then able to read the pressure close to the heart, from the aorta.

Professor Bryan Williams, from the University of Leicester's department of cardiovascular sciences at Glenfield Hospital, said: "The aorta is millimetres away from the heart and close to the brain and we have always known that pressure here is a bit lower than in the arm.

"Unless we measure the pressure in the aorta we are not getting an appreciation of the risks or benefits of treatment."

He said the device would "change the way blood pressure has been monitored for more than a century" and he expected the technology to be used in specialist centres soon, before being "used much more widely" within five years.

"The beauty of all of this is that it is difficult to argue against the proposition that the pressure near to your heart and brain is likely to be more relevant to your risk of stroke and heart disease than the pressure in your arm," he said.

But it was important to ensure the new device was as small as possible to encourage clinicians and patients to use it, he added.

The research work was funded by the Department of Health's National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

The NIHR invested �3.4m, with a further �2.2m of funding coming from the Department of Health, to establish a Biomedical Research Unit at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester.

The university collaborated with the Singapore-based medical device company HealthSTATS International.

Dr Choon Meng Ting, chairman of HealthSTATS, said: "This study has resulted in a very significant translational impact worldwide as it will empower doctors and their patients to monitor their central aortic systolic pressure easily, even in their homes and modify the course of treatment for blood pressure-related ailments."

Mr Lansley said the device was "a great example of how research breakthroughs and innovation can make a real difference to patients' lives".

Judy O'Sullivan, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said previous research had shown that measuring pressure close to the heart was a better indicator of the effectiveness of treatment for high blood pressure than the standard method.

"However, further research is needed before we can be certain of its superiority in the doctor's surgery," she said.