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Researchers have demonstrated a method to detect the vibrations of a mobile phone’s earpiece and decipher what the person on the other side of the call was saying with up to 83 percent accuracy. The team at Pennsylvania State University used an off-the-shelf automotive radar sensor and a novel processing approach to reveal this significant security concern.

“As technology becomes more reliable and robust over time, the misuse of such sensing technologies by adversaries becomes probable,” said Suryoday Basak, a doctoral candidate at Penn State.

“Our demonstration of this kind of exploitation contributes to the pool of scientific literature that broadly says, ‘Hey! Automotive radars can be used to eavesdrop audio. We need to do something about this,” Basak said.

The radar operates in the millimetre-wave (mmWave) spectrum, specifically in the bands of 60 to 64GHz and 77 to 81GHz, which inspired the researchers to name their approach “mmSpy.” This is a subset of the radio spectrum used for 5G, the fifth-generation standard for communication systems across the globe.

In the mmSpy demonstration, described in the 2022 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP), the researchers simulated people speaking through the earpiece of a smartphone.

The phone’s earpiece vibrates from the speech, and that vibration permeates across the body of the phone.

“We use the radar to sense this vibration and reconstruct what was said by the person on the other side of the line,” said Basak.

The researchers, including Mahanth Gowda, an assistant professor at Penn State, noted that their approach works even when the audio is completely inaudible to both humans and microphones nearby.

“This isn’t the first time similar vulnerabilities or attack modalities have been found, but this particular aspect — detecting and reconstructing speech from the other side of a smartphone line — was not yet explored,” Basak said.

The radar sensor data is pre-processed via MATLAB and Python modules, which are computing platform-language interfaces used to remove hardware-related and artefact noise from the data.

The researchers then feed that to machine learning modules trained to classify speech and reconstruct audio.

When the radar senses vibrations from a foot away, the processed speech is 83 percent accuracy. That drops the farther the radar moves from the phone, down to 43 percent accuracy at six feet, they said.

Once the speech is reconstructed, the researchers can then filter, enhance or classify keywords as needed, Basak said.

The team is continuing to refine their approach to better understand not only how to protect against this security vulnerability, but also how to exploit it for good.

“The methodology that we developed can also be used for sensing vibrations in industrial machinery, smart home systems and building-monitoring systems,” Basak said.

According to the researchers, there are similar home maintenance or even health monitoring systems that could benefit from such sensitive tracking.

“Imagine a radar that could track a user and call for help if some health parameter changes in a dangerous way,” Basak said.

“With the right set of target actions, radars in smart homes and industry can enable a faster turnaround when problems and issues are detected,” he added.


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Voyager 2’s Flyby Sheds Light on Uranus’s Magnetic Mystery

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Voyager 2's Flyby Sheds Light on Uranus's Magnetic Mystery

A recent analysis of 38-year-old data from NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft has provided fresh insights into the unique magnetosphere of Uranus, according to a study published on November 11 in Nature Astronomy. During Voyager 2’s 1986 flyby, Uranus’ magnetosphere was found to be unexpectedly distorted by a blast of solar wind. The findings suggest that the planet’s magnetic field behaves unlike any other in the solar system.

Findings Highlight Unusual Magnetic Structures

Jamie Jasinski, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and California Institute of Technology, and lead author of the study, noted that Voyager 2’s timing happened to coincide with an intense solar wind event, a rare occurrence near Uranus. This compression of Uranus’s magnetosphere, seen only around 4% of the time, is thought to be responsible for the unique measurements Voyager captured. Had the spacecraft arrived even a week earlier, Jasinski observed, these conditions would likely have been different, possibly leading to alternative conclusions about Uranus’s magnetic characteristics.

Unlike Earth, Uranus exhibits a complex “open-closed” magnetic process, influenced by its extreme axial tilt. This tilt subjects Uranus to highly variable solar wind effects, resulting in a magnetosphere that opens and closes cyclically.

Implications for Future Uranus Exploration

The study’s conclusions go beyond Uranus itself, offering insights into the magnetic behaviours of its outermost moons, including Titania and Oberon. These moons, it turns out, lie within Uranus’s magnetosphere rather than outside it, making them candidates for investigations into subsurface oceans through magnetic field detection. As Jasinski highlighted, these conditions would simplify detecting any magnetic signatures that suggest liquid beneath the moons’ icy surfaces.

While Voyager 2 remains the only mission to visit Uranus, the study’s findings underscore a growing interest in exploring the ice giant in greater detail.

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Tajikistan rock shelter reveals ancient human migration routes

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Tajikistan rock shelter reveals ancient human migration routes

Archaeologists have uncovered a rock shelter in Tajikistan’s Zeravshan Valley that was occupied by multiple human species, including Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Homo sapiens, for over 130,000 years. Discovered along the Zeravshan River in the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor (IAMC), this site, known as Soii Havzak, provides new insight into the migration patterns of ancient humans. Researchers believe the IAMC may have facilitated interactions between these groups, offering clues about how they lived and possibly coexisted in Central Asia.

Discovery Along the Zeravshan River

A team led by Dr Yossi Zaidner, senior lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, recently excavated the site. Evidence of various human occupations was found, including stone tools and animal bones dating from 150,000 to 20,000 years ago. Zaidner noted that Central Asia’s IAMC could have served as a natural migration route, allowing distinct human populations to cross paths. “This discovery is crucial for understanding ancient human presence in Central Asia and how different human species may have interacted here,” he stated in a press release.

Significance for Human Migration and Interaction

Artifacts from Soii Havzak, including stone blades, rock flakes, crafted flints, and signs of fire use, suggest repeated use of the shelter by different human groups. The find highlights Central Asia’s significance in ancient migration routes, with the Zeravshan River likely serving as a pathway for early humans as they dispersed across continents.

A Pathway for Ancient Civilisations

Beyond its prehistoric importance, the Zeravshan Valley later became a key route on the Silk Road, linking distant civilisations such as China and Rome. Researchers expect further studies at Soii Havzak to shed light on the broader implications of this region in ancient human migration and cross-cultural interactions, aiming to deepen understanding of human history and evolution during the Middle Paleolithic era.

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NASA’s Juno shows Jupiter’s storms and moon Amalthea up close

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NASA’s Juno shows Jupiter’s storms and moon Amalthea up close

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has delivered breathtaking images of Jupiter, highlighting the planet’s swirling, multicoloured storms and unique moons. During Juno’s 66th close flyby on October 23, the spacecraft approached the planet’s polar regions and captured close-up views of its fifth-largest moon, Amalthea. The raw images collected by JunoCam have since been processed by citizen scientists, who enhanced colours and contrasts to reveal Jupiter’s atmospheric details in a new light.

Spectacular Details of Jupiter’s Storms Revealed

Citizen scientist Jackie Branc processed one of Juno’s most striking images, showcasing a region on Jupiter called a Folded Filamentary Region (FFR), located near the planet’s subpolar areas. FFRs are known for their complex cloud patterns, which include white billows and fine, thread-like filaments. This recent image captures Jupiter’s stormy atmosphere with an emphasis on these fine details, giving scientists and the public alike a vivid view of the planet’s dynamic weather systems.

Juno’s data, available to the public online, allows enthusiasts and researchers to adjust image features such as contrast and colour balance. This collaborative effort has enabled a range of perspectives on Jupiter’s atmospheric bands, turbulent clouds, and powerful vortices.

Amalthea: A Close-Up of Jupiter’s Unique Moon

Juno also captured images of Amalthea, a small, potato-shaped moon only 84 kilometres in radius. In images processed by Gerald Eichstädt, the white balance was adjusted to distinguish Amalthea from the blackness of space, presenting the moon in stark relief. This view of Amalthea, with its rugged, irregular shape, adds to our understanding of Jupiter’s complex satellite system.

Launched in 2016, the Juno mission was originally planned to conclude in 2021, but its mission has been extended, with plans to end in September 2025. When its mission concludes, Juno will plunge into Jupiter’s atmosphere, marking the end of its successful exploration journey.

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