French researchers from the Institut Polytechnique Grenoble and the Centre Technique du Papier are in the process of developing a wallpaper that blocks a range of Wi-Fi frequencies. The smart reams of paper are to be known as Metapaper.

The triangle snowflake pattern found on Metapaper is where its smart characteristics originate from. It is covered in a conductive ink that contains particles of silver. Plus if you don’t like the pattern, you will be able to cover it up with more traditional wallpaper without affecting Metapaper’s abilities.

Affordable Wi-Fi blocking wallpaper will be sure to please those in tinfoil hats

It isn’t a fail proof solution for those in tinfoil hats however, one would have to cover doors, roofs and windows in the wallpaper as well to ensure no Wi-Fi signals leave or enter your basement – or house. Even though many Wi-Fi frequencies will be blocked, your mobile phone’s calling, texting and 3G data connectivity abilities will be unaffected.

The French researchers say that it will be rather affordable as well; costing as much as conventional wallpaper. A far cry cheaper than previous attempts that cost some £500 per square foot. Metapaper is hoped to be launched sometime next year.

When you say the words “Class Project,” most folks flash back to tedious research papers, MLA-style references and boring talks about Shakespearian characters with Oedipus Complexes. In other words: BOOOOOORING. But school doesn’t have to be a snooze-fest! Case in point: Penn State’s Advanced Mechatronics class, which sounds like it may just be the coolest course ever. One enterprising mechanical engineering student went after his final mechatronic project with gusto and built a working, talking, tracking and firing replica of Portal’s gun turret — then put it up on YouTube for the world to see.

The project was originally brought to my attention in a Google+ post by BCCHardware’s Benjamin Heide. I could tell you about how the kick-ass turret runs on MATLAB and Arduino and it tracks movement via RGB colors, but you’d learn all that by watching the video above and checking out the creator’s Reddit thread, anyways — both of which you should do ASAP. Would I help if it said the turret actually talks?

There still some upgrading to be done; the tracking guns are a bit slow and jerky, and the turret’s obviously missing an exterior casing that would give it the full-fledged Portal vibe. Fortunately, the engineer behind the turret says he’s already working on all that.

So, whaddaya think: does he deserve an A?

Follow Brad on Google+ or Twitter

It’s all well and good giving a shout out to a new software update that will touch the lives of millions, but how certain can we be that our lives will actually improve after the time-consuming effort of updating an iPad or sumsuch?  Tecnobitsoptimistically plugs an iPad 3 into a USB 3 port, hoping that things might go quicker.

While the iPad 2 seemed as solid as a rock from the day it arrived, we have to say that there have been times with the iPad 3 when ‘your window just disappears’. You’re doing something one second and the next, it’s gone.

Microsoft users roll with these punches – it takes more than randomly ending browser windows before we get psyched. That said, once you do lock yourself into the locked down world of the Apple-ites, you sort of expect things to work.

Cue Apple iOS 5.1.1

According to Apple’s own site, users have been suffering from a number of afflictions, including (but not limited to) the following (with solutions):-

• Improves reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut
• Addresses bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks
• Fixes bugs that affected AirPlay video playback in some circumstances
• Improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List
• Fixes an issue where ‘Unable to purchase’ alert could be displayed after successful purchase

The update takes a while, so it’s nice to get the ‘things seem OK’ message at the end.

The main security issues fixed with Safari/WebKit are described as follows:-

Safari
Available for: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation) and later, iPad, iPad 2
Impact: A maliciously crafted website may be able to spoof the address in the location bar
Description: A URL spoofing issue existed in Safari. This could be used in a malicious web site to direct the user to a spoofed site that visually appeared to be a legitimate domain. This issue is addressed through improved URL handling. This issue does not affect OS X systems.

WebKit
Impact: Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to a cross-site scripting attack
Description: Multiple cross-site scripting issues existed in WebKit.
Impact: Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution
Description: A memory corruption issue existed in WebKit.

Being protected from all of these evils is certainly a good thing. What’s less good is the speed with which ‘issues’ with iOS 5.1.1. are posted – almost as soon as anyone has had a chance to install the update.

One quick glance through Google and the most common seem to centre on things like synchronisation and battery life.

You'd need to research the issues for yourself to assess their veracity, but the idea of Apple being 100% stable is just not true – so we would recommend that you do a little research and a lot of backing up before you press 'go'

Comment below or in the Tecnobitsforums.

For years now, many of the most interesting advancements in robotics have arrived via open source robot platforms and community contributions to them. Among open source robotics efforts, Willow Garage–a project that originated at Stanford University–may be the most famous and accomplished. Robots being developed within it run ROS (Robot Operating System) software, and are surprisingly capable. At least 25 institutions are developing robotics applications on Willow Garage’s open platform, and now, Willow garage has announced the launch of the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF). This is likely to be huge news for robot fans.

According to the OSRF announcement:

"The OSRF is an independent, non-profit organization founded by members of the global robotics community. Their mission is to support the development, distribution, and adoption of open source software for use in robotics research, education, and product development. In conjunction with the formation of the OSRF, the Board of Directors was also announced. The Board of Directors comprises a worldwide collection of educators, leaders and visionaries in the field of robotics."

Among the luminaries on the OSRF board are:

- Wolfram Burgard, a professor at the University of Freiburg where he leads the Laboratory for Autonomous Intelligent Systems.

- Ryan Gariepy, the co-founder and CTO of Clearpath Robotics. Clearpath Robotics specializes in the design and manufacture of robust and reliable unmanned vehicle solutions for industrial R&D.

- Brian Gerkey, Director of Open Source Development at Willow Garage.

- Helen Greiner, co-founder of iRobot and currently CEO of CyPhyWorks.

- Sam Park, the executive vice president of Yujin Robot. At Yujin Robot he has directed the commercialization of educational and entertainment robots, elderly service robots and home cleaning robots.

That’s quite a distinguished board. The first initiative of the OSRF will be participating in the DARPA Robotics Challenge. The DARPA Robotics Challenge launches in October of this year and offers a $2 million prize "to whomever can help push the state-of-the-art in robotics beyond today’s capabilities in support of the DoD’s disaster recovery mission."

"It’s always been the intention of Willow Garage to create an independent body that can take our initial work in open source robotics and see it grow beyond the confines of a single organization,"  said Steve Cousins, CEO of Willow Garage, in a statement. "The reality is that the popularity of open source robotics in general, and ROS specifically, has grown beyond our wildest expectations. Willow Garage will enthusiastically support the goals of the OSRF." 

For much more coverage of open source robotics, see OStatic’s posts here, here, and here. 

Sniper Elite V2′s hyper-realistic, surgically accurate KillCam feature takes you inside your victim’s body to see precisely how your bullet will end his life. Will gamers embrace the gore, or is the KillCam a step over the line?

The creators of Sniper Elite V2, a third-person World War II shooter released this week, know that the success of a modern video game comes down to the details. They worked closely with historians to nail the feel of 1945 Berlin, all the way down to the pattern of the wallpaper inside a typical German home. The typeface on the Nazi propaganda littering the crumbling virtual urban streets is Antiqua, the preferred font of the Reich.

But the primary subject of research for the team was more, shall we say, internal: what happens when a sniper’s bullet enters a human body? They consulted medical experts, ex-military snipers, photography of real-life gunshot victims and x-rays of bone fractures, gathering a mountain of data and funneling it into through the incredibly powerful software and hardware used to create today’s videogames. The final result: a realistic simulation they call the “KillCam,” in which the camera follows a bullet as it leaves the sniper’s gun, flies through the air, hits its mark, and invades the body–with all the bone-crushing, organ-bursting, blood-spewing destruction that entails.

I went to see Sniper Elite V2 demonstrated in a hotel suite in midtown Manhattan on a weekday morning. In the room were the same three people you see in almost every product briefing: a young PR girl with a notebook, for scribbling notes about me and my reactions, which is not as flattering as you’d think; a talky representative from the developer (this one was British, and named Tim Jones; he’s the head of creative for the developer); and a stoic engineer-type, a stocky guy from the publisher who stood behind the couch and spoke very little but was outrageously, effortlessly good at the game. Before the demonstration, Jones asked if I wanted to play. I declined, theoretically so I could better observe and take notes, but mostly because I am lousy at shooting games. The stoic engineer took my place. He would be the sniper. Later, during the demonstration of co-op mode, Tim Jones would provide his ground-cover.

Jones and stoic engineer played that cooperative mode in a burned-out Berlin in 1945. The game is fairly cleverly designed, as far as shooters go; it’s not a “shoot everyone in sight” sort of game–not a “run and gun,” said Jones–but one much more about stealth and strategy. This level found the players tasked with destroying a cargo truck, which in turn required several sub-tasks to set up the final shoot-the-truck sequence. They’d have to draw enemies away from the truck, plant explosive charges, and set them off (by, not entirely realistically, shooting the glowing red fuel caps around the outside of the truck). While going through that checklist, Nazis would need to be dispatched. The stoic engineer would pick off long-range targets, and Tim Jones would set traps and place bombs.

You’re killing people. And that’s a messy business.I was going to ask the players to show me the KillCam, basically the entire reason I was there. Th KillCam is triggered only when a particularly well-placed shot is fired, and I didn’t want to watch these guys play videogames like I did in middle school when I was bad at Battletoads and hanging out in friends’ basements. I didn’t have to worry. Within a minute, I saw it. The target: a mirror image of the stoic engineer’s own player, a Nazi sniper perched a few hundred yards away on the roof of an abandoned building, ducking behind a shard of concrete that once may have been a wall. The stoic engineer found his target, lowered the crosshairs expertly on the enemy–not directly on the enemy, but slightly above, because at this distance, the player has to adjust for the effects of gravity. (On expert levels, you also have to contend with wind, and the game features heart rate and breath-pattern meters–your shot will be more accurate if you shoot with a low heart rate and empty lungs.)

Immediately the game paused for the KillCam cutscene. Everyone stop what you’re doing and watch this.

The bullet exploded out of the muzzle of the Gewehr rifle, emerging in a bright, jagged flash. The camera pulled back as it began its flight through the air, then quickly swung to the side. You could see the bullet rotate, see the waves, like dreamy smoke rings, left in its wake. The music muted slightly. Then, up ahead, I saw the mirror-image Nazi sniper, directly in the bullet’s path. Time slowed down even more as the bullet approached its target. It’s a perfect head-shot, an achievement. The stoic engineer will receive a small digital trophy for this, an award that will pop up in the corner of the screen. The camera rotated back behind the bullet to follow it as it got closer and closer to the enemy. Then it reached the enemy’s face. Suddenly the Nazi’s skin peeled back, like a Venetian blind rolling up, snapping backwards over his skull. I saw the bare, perfectly clean bone, the teeth, grinning and eerie, the spinal column beneath with its visible path of nerves. The bullet splattered through the cornea, shattered the bones of the eye-socket and cheek, broke through the blood vessels at the back of the eye, burst backwards through the brain cavity and punched a hole in the back of the skull, its course realistically altered by its journey. Blood and bone shot upwards, outwards, backwards. The entire cutscene took maybe eight seconds.

“Nice shot,” says the talky representative. “Thanks,” mutters the stoic engineer. I’d see the KillCam several more times, would see “Vital Hit” bullets pierce vital organs in the chest cavity (heart, lungs, liver, kidney), break ribs, turn collarbones and pelvic bones into coarse fragments of bone, and, on one memorable occasion, would see a bullet strike a hand grenade the enemy wore on a belt. The grenade exploded, almost robbing us of the full force of the KillCam, the Nazi’s body reduced to pulp and shrapnel in the blunt force of the grenade, negating any need for an x-ray image of his death. (The name of this type of shot, for some reason: a “potato masher.”) Not as clean as the sniper round, but rarer. The talky representative was excited to explain to me what had happened. “Did you see that? He hit the grenade!”

“Wow,” I said.

* * *

What struck me most about seeing these guys play the game was how businesslike they were. Partly that’s because these guys are the creators of the game: they’ve played it, I’m sure, hundreds or thousands of times already. Nothing in the game surprises them. But there was no posturing, no “Fucking awesome, man!” when a Nazi met his grisly end, not even for my benefit. No high fives, no elbow nudges, no cheering, no grins. Instead, in between the talky representative’s steady monologue about the intricacies of Sniper Elite V2′s gameplay, which I mostly ignored, there was quiet cooperation. “Coming up the stairs on your left,” said the stoic engineer, who could see the talky representative’s avatar from his sky-high perch on the rooftops. “Cheers,” said the talky representative, as he set a tight-wire explosive trap, which the Nazis would trip when they reached the top of the stairs. Upon their explosion, the stoic engineer and the talky representative didn’t so much give a nod of approval. They moved away from the doorway, because the explosion, while effective, had given their position away. They weren’t watching an action movie. They were working.

And that’s part of the what makes Sniper Elite V2 so interesting. It is easily the most graphic, violent video game I’ve ever seen, but the violence is relatively realistic, not cartoony. The game has the dubious honor of humanizing Nazis more than any of the scores of WWII-era games, films, and books that came before it: these are not anonymous targets, dispatched from far away with the tug of the R-trigger: once you see testicles exploded, fingers severed, an artery slashed open by the force of your bullet, that you shot, from your own gun, you feel the effects of your actions in a way I didn’t expect. The original idea might well have been to create the most extreme, violent period shooter ever made. Blood! Guts! X-rays! But the effect is the complete opposite. You’re not yanking a cartoon ninja’s spine out of his body with your bare hands, or stabbing a shrieking purple alien with a glowing light-sword. You’re killing people. And that’s a messy business.

* * *

For all its talk of realism–the publisher has billed the game as “the most brutally realistic military sharpshooter out there”–there are serious lapses in realism throughout the game. It’s realistic until realism interferes with the fun of the game, at which point realism can be cheerfully abandoned. Having to monitor your heart rate, wind speed and direction, and the precise loss of altitude your bullet will experience due to gravity over distance? Those are realistic variables, and fun ones. But with rare exceptions, a shot to the torso will kill any target. An exploded kidney will drop a Nazi like a stone, just as dead as if he’d been shot through the frontal lobe. Shots to the wrists or knees will sometimes mean instant death, for some reason (although most times, a leg shot will topple the enemy, leaving him to scream for help from his comrades–whom you can then take down).

But the question of realism isn’t an easy one to answer–as a player, you don’t really have the option of trotting over to a Nazi you’ve just shot in the torso to see if the splinters of bone fragment from his ribcage have reacted in a realistic way to the effects of the cavitation caused by the bullet, or if the enemy is bleeding out from a shot to the femoral artery in an appropriate time frame. You get, at most, two seconds of the bullet entering the body, then it’s time to move on to the next target.

You yourself are remarkably bulletproof–you can take several direct hits before having to duck behind cover and heal up, which you will, automatically. You’ll score “two-in-ones” fairly often, in which you’ll kill two enemies with a single bullet. In the real world, that shot is referred to as a “Quigley,” a reference to a 1990 Tom Selleck movie. It’s extremely rare.

The AI are smart enough to locate you due to sound, but hiding for a few seconds will send them back to their regular rounds, where they seem not to notice that they have to step over the bodies of their fellow soldiers who were shot by a hidden sniper moments before. “Oh well, back to the patrol!” It’s not tremendously more complex than the stealth mechanics of Sly Cooper, which is a decade-old game about a cartoon master thief raccoon and his two friends, a turtle and a hippopotamus.

* * *

You still get extra points for hitting a vital organ.The motives for creating this element of the game are murky, by necessity. It would be sort of untoward and unnecessarily confrontational for Jones and the other representatives from Rebellion and 505 Games to be vocal about the awesomeness of shooting somebody in the kidney and watching it rupture. Jones said it would be false to claim that the “visceral ‘wow’ factor [...] wasn’t a big factor in our decision to design and implement it that way.” Sniping feels like a relatively mechanical way of killing someone–you’re removed from the act itself, separated by distance and the glass of the scope, making adjustments for wind and gravity and angle in the same way you adjust the steering wheel to keep your car in its lane. “It does force players to reflect on the fate of their enemies in a way that many other games gloss over,” he said.

He also referred to the KillCam, in a sort of action-movie, U.S.-Army-recruiting video way, as a “heroic death sequence” for the fallen enemy. That’s just one of a whole mess of ways to approach the game–in your gut, you may think it’s noble, or you may think it’s brutal, or, as much of the chat on messageboards shows, you may think it’s awesome.

The messageboards are full of comments like this: “It’d be cool if they’d allow for a replay kill-cam, with a rotatable/zoom-able camera with editing tools and the ability to upload your videos to [Xbox] Live/PSN for others to watch.” Or excited folks who “just got [their] first nut-shot.” For them, the KillCam is just a new gore-delivery system, the latest in a long line of mildly transgressive evolutions in gaming violence. Shooting games are a dime a dozen, and as much as Tim tried to insist to me that what really sets Sniper Elite V2 apart from the pack is its stealth mechanics, I know better. Stealth isn’t new. Watching your bullet puncture a lung from the inside, that’s new. The trailers lean heavily on the gore. And no matter how educational or perspective-altering the KillCams are, you still get extra points for hitting a vital organ.

Reviews so far are mixed, but all mention the KillCam. The GameSpot review calls the KillCam shots “gruesome and gratifying” and “delightfully gory,” and says “they never get old.” The Official Xbox Magazine review uses the phrase “buckets of red awesomesauce.” GameInformer’s Tim Turi self-identifies as a “gore hound,” but even he notes that “some of these kills made my stomach twitch a bit.”

Mine too.