Beyond Fingerprint IDs & Crowdsourcing Earthquake Data

The new iPhone 5S is barely in the hands of users, and some are saying fingerprint tech is dead. While it’s been used for years for high security, a company called Eye Lock has developed a consumer version of iris recognition technology. 

We’re always looking for ways to recharge our mobile devices. Scientists at the University of Tokyo have developed a gadget to recycle the energy from your microwave to charge your phone! Since we don’t run microwaves all the time, they’re working on a way to store the juice to transfer to your phone.

Earthquakes are a fact of life in places like the Bay Area. Some scientists and engineers want to harness the accelerometers in smartphones to track seismic activity. Basically, they want to crowdsource quake data. They were inspired by Stanford’s Quake Catcher Network. The next step is writing software that enhances the sensitivity of the accelerometers.