Connected tech sparks privacy fears

8 January 2014 Last updated at 18:14 ET By Mark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News

In the future, it might not just be your smartphone that leaks personal and private data, it might be your smart fridge too.

So said experts gathered at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

They debated what happens to privacy and security as the "internet of things" begins to emerge.

At CES this year, hi-tech firms have released a plethora of formerly dumb products that can gather and share data about what they and their owners do.

Governments will also need to do more to ensure consumers stay in control of the data gathered about them, said one attendee.

"The internet of things is having its breakout year and it is this year that it will become a mainstream ecosystem and set of technologies," said independent consultant Larry Downes who led a discussion about the topic at the conference that runs alongside the show.

Smart lighting systems, Skype-connected baby monitors, a Bluetooth enabled meat thermometer and smart ovens were all unveiled at the Las Vegas show - suggesting that such devices are about to become commonplace.

"Dealing with the privacy and security aspects of the internet of things is going to be one of the biggest challenges we have faced in security for a long time," said Marc Rogers, principal research analyst at mobile security firm Lookout.

"These technologies will be some of the most intimate we have ever had.

"We are going to be wearing it, installing it throughout our living spaces and other places where technology has not usually had the opportunity to go."

Good industry practices that have become standard in other areas should be useful in helping to develop safe and secure smart appliances, said Mr Rogers.

Problems were already starting to emerge as the first net-enabled appliances start to hit the market, said Jeff Hagins, founder of home automation start-up Smart Things.

Consumers were often not able to dictate what happened with the data that smart appliances gathered, he said, adding that often this data had the potential to be sensitive and deeply personal.

"There's a tendency among manufacturers to copy all the data to their own cloud," said Mr Hagins.

"Consumers are frequently not being given a choice to control or allow that."

Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen from the US Federal Trade Commission said governments should not be afraid to act if manufacturers were not living up to standards of fairness and disclosure demanded from websites and other hi-tech firms.

"It's crucial that companies offering these products that are part of the internet of things act to safeguard the privacy of users to avoid giving the technology a bad name while it is still in its infancy," she said.

Mr Hagins added that as well as consumers needing to be careful about who they were sharing their data with outside the home, they should also be aware of the tensions within a family about who gets access to what systems.

"Should a child be able to hack the home automation system to flash the lights in their sibling's room during the night?" he asked.

"That's something they'll certainly be capable of doing."

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Samsung unveils its Bendable TV

6 January 2014 Last updated at 20:49 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

Samsung has shown off the Bendable TV - an 85in (216cm) prototype that allows the curvature of its screen to be adjusted by remote control.

The LED (light-emitting diode) set was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

LG has also announced a smaller 77in (196cm) flexible TV of its own that is based on OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology.

The firms suggest that a curved screen can enhance the viewing experience.

The tech would allow the sets' owners to determine how bent the screens should be taking into account how many people were watching them and how far away they were sitting. The screens would have the added benefit of being able to be left flat against the wall when not in use.

LG's model has also gone on show at the firm's CES booth.

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LG shows the BBC's Richard Taylor its flexible television

However, industry watchers are unconvinced there is a market for such innovation.

"The challenge for the firms is to demonstrate that the world really needs this," said Martin Garner, a TV tech consultant from CCS Insight who is attending CES.

"They are, however, a nice attempt at differentiation."

Will Findlater, global online editor for Stuff Magazine, added: "The jury is still very much out on whether curved displays make much difference to image quality and the experience you have when watching a TV. At this stage it does feel like a bit of a gimmick."

Lost for words

Neither of the two South Korean manufacturers have given a projected price or release date for the user-bendable TVs.

They both, however, offer versions with a fixed curvature.

The two companies are showing off new giant-sized 105in (267cm) concave-screened versions in the extra-wide 21:9 aspect ratio.

Samsung said such a design delivered the "most immersive viewing experience" possible.

However, a demonstration of the equipment went awry when it invited Michael Bay, director of the Transformers movies, on stage at its press conference.

The Hollywood millionaire complained his autocue had malfunctioned and initially said "I will just wing this."

But when asked what he thought about the new set he found himself speechless, apologised and walked off stage leaving a stunned audience.

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Michael Bay initially said he would "wing it" after his autocue malfunctioned

Joe Stinziano, senior vice president of Samsung Electronics, told the crowd: "Welcome to Vegas, it's a live show folks."

Mr Bay later wrote a blog giving his take on the mishap.

"Wow! I just embarrassed myself at CES," he wrote.

"I got so excited to talk, that I skipped over the Exec VP's intro line and then the teleprompter got lost.

"Then the prompter went up and down - then I walked off. I guess live shows aren't my thing."

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PlayStation games go console-free

7 January 2014 Last updated at 16:28 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

Sony has announced plans to roll out its cloud gaming service.

PlayStation Now will allow subscribers to play some of the platform's greatest hits without the need to own a console.

It works by streaming data from the company's servers. The firm's latest smart TVs will be among the first devices to support it, but Sony also intends to offer the facility to other third-party products.

One expert said the firm had a rich back catalogue to draw on.

"It's a pretty big asset," said Brian Blau from the tech consultancy Gartner.

"You can imagine the hundreds of years of manpower that went into building it up, and now they can get value from it for a long time into the future."

Sony said it would launch a restricted test of the service in the US later this month before a wider launch in the summer.

It has not provided details of plans for other markets yet or information of which smartphone and table platforms will be the first to get apps to run the facility.

The announcement was made at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Tackling lag

The new facility is based on technology developed by Gaikai, a cloud gaming start-up that the Japanese firm acquired for $380m (£232m) in 2012.

Its rival Samsung had previously announced plans to partner with the firm to let its TVs offer games.

Sony said the service would also allow its new PlayStation 4 console to run titles from the PS3's library.

Since the two machines use different types of processors, the PS4 cannot currently run the previous generation's titles.

It also said that its handheld, the PS Vita, would use PlayStation Now to gain access to a wider catalogue.

Sony added that another benefit of hosting titles in the cloud was that subscribers would always be playing the most up-to-date versions.

Demo titles on show at CES include The Last of Us, Beyond: Two Souls, and God of War: Ascension.

Tech bloggers who tested the kit have noted that it does have some limitations.

"There's a slightly perceptible lag between button presses and the corresponding action onscreen," wrote Chris Welch for The Verge.

Others noted that the visuals were not as crisp as would be the case if they were running natively on a PS3. But they said the games were still playable.

Sony is not alone in offering such a service. OnLive has offered a cloud-based gaming platform since 2010, and is already available in the UK.

However, it lacks many of the big-name titles that Sony will be able to offer.

Mr Blau said that he expected that PlayStation Now would suit some titles better than others.

"I imagine that for the games that don't require a very fast frame rate that lag won't make any difference at all," he said.

"But for those that run at 50 to 60 frames per second it could be an issue if you're not close to a Sony server.

"However, I imagine the firm has the capability to ensure that most of the connected PlayStations and TV will be close to at least one of its data centres.

"And as the years go on that will become less of a problem as the internet's infrastructure matures."

PS4 v Xbox One

Sony also announced that it had sold 4.2 million PlayStation 4 consoles as of December 28.

Its rival Microsoft had previously said that three million Xbox One machines had been sold by the end of 2013.

Jason Kingsley, chief executive of developer Rebellion, suggested the numbers reflected the firm's different strategies.

"Microsoft seemed to have a US focused launch with an emphasis on TV and US sports," he said.

"Sony played the hardcore gamer card well in the UK.

"All sales are good for the development scene though and it is still early days. They are both excellent machines."

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3D food printers debut at CES

8 January 2014 Last updated at 00:47 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

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BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones tests some of the 3D printers on show at CES

Two food-creating 3D printers that will launch later this year have been unveiled in Las Vegas.

The machines make chocolate and sugar-based confectionery shaped in ways that would be difficult to produce using traditional methods.

The smaller one, Chefjet, is limited to monochrome creations, but the larger Chefjet Pro can create multicoloured objects.

However, experts said their prices would be likely to limit sales.

The basic version will cost about $5,000 (£3,000) and the more advanced one double that price.

US firm 3D Systems is showing off the machines at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

It also has a new $10,000 model that prints ceramics and another $5,000 one that creates multi-coloured plastic objects.

Until now one of the most common uses for 3D printers within these price ranges has been rapid prototyping - the creation of models used to envisage the look of a design rather than to make products that could be put on sale themselves.

Sugar photographs

3D Systems developed its new "food-safe" models after taking over a Los Angeles-based start-up in September, which had customised one of its machines.

Both models can print using chocolate, or sugar infused with vanilla, mint, sour apple, cherry and watermelon flavours.

The larger one has the advantage of being able to create "photographic-quality" pictures by mixing together different ingredients that can then then be wrapped around cakes and other surfaces.

The designs are built using a layer-by-layer printing process.

Sweets are created by spreading a fine layer of the flavoured sugar, and then painting water on top using a jet print head to turn the substance into hardened crystals.

The process is then repeated to make the resulting edible objects, which can even have moving parts.

The firm is also releasing Digital Cookbook, an app to help customers - who might not be experts in computer-aided design - make such treats .

3D Systems is not the only company expanding into this area.

Natural Machines, a Spanish start-up, recently unveiled a prototype called the Foodini that can create chocolates and ravioli pasta among other choices.

Nasa has given funding to the founder of a Texas-headquartered engineering firm to build a food printer that could be used by its astronauts.

And British start-up Choc Edge is already selling a printer that can create chocolate printed patterns.

However, 3D Systems' machines would be the most advanced of their kind to become commercially available.

Printing rivals

The South Carolina-based company is a pioneer in its field.

Its founder, Chuck Hall, was granted the first patent for the Stereolithography additive manufacturing process on which the 3D printing industry was built in 1986.

Until recently it and Stratasys - a US firm that owns the Makerbot brand - had little competition since many of the technologies they used were patent protected.

However, several of these patents have now expired, letting others enter the industry.

This year there are about 30 firms exhibiting 3D-printing tech at CES, putting pressure on the more established players to innovate.

"A lot of the start-ups are producing variations on the themes already out there: variations in accuracy, in speed, and the types of plastic that can be used," said Duncan Wood, publisher of 3D printing-themed TCT Magazine.

"But there's no doubt that 3D Systems remains the dominant player in the market thanks to the range of the machine categories it offers and the size of its R&D team. And with the new products over here at CES they've really stolen the show in many ways."

While some of the smaller players may be happy for now to focus on less advanced but cheaper models, one expert at the tech show was not convinced their products would find mass appeal at this stage.

"At the moment where we are at is comparable to the early 1980s when the odd person had a dot matrix paper printer but most people went to a shop to print their documents," said Stuff Magazine's deputy online editor Stephen Graves.

"And that what's happening with 3D printing.

"At the moment all you can really do is rapid prototyping with the plastic-using low resolution ones available on the high street. They're more of a curio more than anything else."

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Phones become tricorder and stun gun

9 January 2014 Last updated at 03:23 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

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Scandu's scanner is designed to be held up to a person's head to deliver a diagnosis to their smartphone

Add-ons that turn smartphones into Star Trek-like tricorder medical diagnostic kits, Predator-style thermal vision cameras and even electric "stun guns" are being promoted at the Consumer Electronics Show.

The inventions join a growing list of hardware that adds abilities to existing handsets.

Most will go on sale this year.

But one expert said the ambition of many was to see themselves taken over by one of the big manufacturers.

That is what happened to Authentec, which attended CES for several years before its fingerprint tech was acquired for use in Apple's iPhone 5S.

"If you come up with a good idea the reality is that you're going to get sold for a high price," explained Ben Wood from the tech consultancy CCS Insight.

"It's palpable here - you can feel there are people scouting the show floor desperately looking for that next big thing."

Tricorder tech

California-based Scandu is already attracting attention before its first product's release.

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The Yellow Jacket smartphone case has the power to deliver a 650,000 volt electric shock

The start-up is developing a health-checking scanner packed with sensors called Scout, which the user holds up to their head to let it check their vital signs.

It promises to be able to measure heart rate, skin and core body temperatures, respiratory rate and blood oxygen levels among other readings.

It has no screen of its own, but relies on a smartphone app to interpret the data in order to warn of potential problems or help its owner manage a chronic condition.

At least that's the theory.

Although a prototype has been developed it's not fully functional yet. If and when the tech is shop-ready it will still need health regulators' approval to go on sale.

Even so, the firm's founder is already planning follow-ups.

"The Scanadu Scout is the first of many products to come," Walter De Brouwer told the BBC.

"Down the road we see consumers collecting all of their health data and even sharing it with each other to learn what works and what doesn't. This all happens through our smartphones.

"Right now we use our smartphone as a hub for our personal data - our emails, our photos, our entertainment, our fingerprints even. Why not use it for your health?"

While Scandu tries to create an all-in-one Star Trek-like scanner, others are giving the smartphone more limited health powers.

San Diego's Sensor Jacket is at CES with a case that contains a "non-contact" infrared thermometer.

It suggests the device could appeal to the parents of newborns who want an easy-to-hand way of checking their temperature.

Sound and vision

As smartphones continue to decimate sales of standalone cameras and music players, several of the exhibitors are trying to enhance the handsets' capabilities.

Izzi Gadgets and Olloclip are both at CES with new cases that offer fisheye, wide-angle and macro lenses to increase the style of pictures that can be taken.

Flir Systems is attempting something even more radical.

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The Flir One case produces a thermal image of cats and anything else put in front of it

The Oregon-headquartered firm has adapted the thermal imaging tech that it developed for US army helicopters and put it into an iPhone case.

It promises potential purchasers a new way of looking at the world in which your cat is a psychedelic mix of yellows and pinks, and your child's eyes appear to glow.

Meanwhile Germany's Beyerdynamic is targeting audiophiles with its new A200p amplifier.

The gadget plugs into a phone's Micro-USB or Lightning cable slot to bypass the handset's own audio signal processing equipment and carry out the conversion process itself.

It offers a mind-boggling 135 different volume levels - and a steep price of $300 (£182), making it potentially more expensive than the phones it will be plugged into.

Touch my back

Other innovative products include Canopy's Sensus App-Enhancing case, which includes resistive force pressure sensors.

It allows users to control a handset by touching its product's back and sides, and can detect how firmly they are pressing. The company aims to ship the first copies later this year, but will require app developers to support the case for users to enjoy the benefits.

Fancy something a bit more extreme? Well, Yellow Jacket's case will turn your mobile into an electric stun gun.

The "self-defence" feature packs 650,000 volts - enough to provide an unpleasant sting rather than a Taser-like knock-out blow - and comes in a range of colours including pink.

Just beware, you could be arrested for owning one in the UK.

Battery bugbear

The problem facing many of the manufacturers is that they either have to make your mobile bulky to include their own battery power or risk draining the life out of the handset.

"Advancements in battery technology are lagging the advancements in mobile telephony technology," explains Chris Jones from tech advisors Canalys.

"With many of the phones now using bigger, richer, higher resolution screens, if you plug in accessories or connect them via Bluetooth you will drain their battery pretty quickly."

Several firms are trying to turn this problem into an opportunity.

Mophie is one of the better known portable battery pack makers. Its latest version- unveiled at CES - is the Space Pack, which has the added benefit of offering extra storage to iPhones.

Prong has taken a different approach. Its PocketPlug case features two pop-out strips of metal that let a phone be plugged directly into the US mains.

There are various add-on wireless charging solutions on show too, to try and take the pain out of the problem.

But perhaps the most unusual solution comes from Salt Lake City's Power Practical.

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Caleb Light demonstrates the 'Power Pot' at CES 2014

The firm has developed a camping cooking pot with a built-in electric thermogenerator that both cooks your food and simultaneously recharges your phone.

You need never go hungry for BBQ beans or another go on Angry Birds again.

Whether the likes of Samsung, Sony or Apple will be interested in the idea is another matter.

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Intel chips will be 'conflict free'

7 January 2014 Last updated at 06:27 ET By Joe Miller BBC News

Intel will no longer use minerals mined in conflict zones to build its microprocessors, the company has said.

Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Intel's chief executive Brian Krzanich urged the "entire industry" to follow suit.

Gold, tungsten and other minerals used in electronics manufacturing are mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and surrounding countries.

Production and trade of the materials are often controlled by armed groups.

Intel's policy comes after increased international pressure for technology firms to investigate the sources of their raw minerals.

Tracing origins

The company, which is the world's largest chipmaker and has factories around the world, says all the microprocessors it ships in 2014 will be "conflict free".

Most electronic devices contain either gold, tantalum, tin, or tungsten, much of which originates from sub-Saharan Africa and is mined in conditions of armed conflict and human rights abuses.

In 2010, US President Barack Obama introduced a law requiring public companies to report whether their products contained minerals from these areas.

Mr Krzanich, who took over as the head of Intel last year, told the audience at CES that the company had been trying to determine the sources of the metals used in its chips for some years.

"We felt an obligation to implement changes in our supply chain to ensure that our business and our products were not inadvertently funding human atrocities," he said.

'Important issue'

The company is already a member of the Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative run by the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition, which encourages environmental and ethical responsibility.

"This is not an issue we would normally be talking about at CES. But it's an issue that is important to me," Mr Krzanich said.

"You begin to think about the impact of the supply chain and the potential issues you can be causing."

At the same keynote session, Intel also announced it would be scrapping the McAfee anti-virus brand name and replacing it with Intel Security.

Software rebrand

The move is intended to sever the connection to the software's eponymous founder, John McAfee, who has been mired in legal troubles, and has confessed to extensive drug use.

But Mr McAfee told the BBC he was was elated by Intel's decision.

"I am now everlastingly grateful to Intel for freeing me from this terrible association with the worst software on the planet," he said.

"These are not my words, but the words of millions of irate users."

Last year Mr McAfee released a video showing how to "uninstall" the firm's anti-virus software by blasting a laptop with a bullet.

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Yahoo unveils news summary app

7 January 2014 Last updated at 20:03 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

Yahoo has launched a news summary app that aims to deliver two daily briefings of eight to nine stories most likely to interest its users.

The News Digest app claims to present readers with "all the stories you need to know about" and brings up a graphic saying "Done" when they have been read.

It is based on Summly, an app created by British teenager Nick D'Aloisio, who now works for Yahoo.

Media analysts are split over the need for such a product.

Mark Mulligan, editor of the Media Industry Blog said the facility could address the needs of busy consumers.

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Rory Cellan-Jones meets Yahoo's Nick D'Aloisio who developed the app's underlying technology when he was just 15-years-old

"There's a huge amount of information of varying quality being created, and people require a way to steer through all the news - it's a tyranny of choice," he told the BBC.

"The idea of cutting through the clutter and being a trusted curator that can offer quality bite-sized chunks of information definitely addresses a need."

But consultant Bob Eggington, who helped launch BBC News Online, was more sceptical.

"If people are being told they have read enough news they are being misled," he said.

"What Yahoo is saying is: 'We will try to tell you the things we know about that we think are of interest to you' - and both of those statements are highly imperfect."

News of the app's release was revealed by Mr D'Aloisio during a presentation hosted by Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Atomised news

Yahoo News Digest uses software algorithms to scour a variety of online publications including Reuters, Associated Press, Business Insider and Sky News.

It then assembles the information gathered into what it terms "atoms", which are selected chunks of text, infographics, maps and Wikipedia extracts about each topic alongside photos, videos and links to the news sources.

"We found that people were willing to consume more content when it was boiled down to the most important bits," said Mr D'Aloisio on the company's blog.

At present the app is only available on the US iPhone App Store and does not allow users to customise the type of stories most likely to interest them.

Android app acquired

Yahoo's news ambitions extend beyond the app.

Ms Mayer's Keynote Address revealed that Yahoo Tech, a advertising-supported technology news site overseen by ex-New York Times writer David Pogue, was now online.

The chief executive also introduced a new digital magazine called Yahoo Food.

In addition, Ms Mayer revealed her firm had taken over Aviate.

The Android app analyses a phone's wi-fi signal, GPS location data and accelerometer sensor to study a user's habits in order to anticipate their needs.

For instance it can then bring up a selection of installed workout apps when it believes the handset owner is at the gym or display bus arrival information when it thinks they are waiting for transport.

Advertising overhaul

Investors will probably be more interested in news that Yahoo has unified its suite of digital advertising products.

Facebook recently overtook Yahoo to become the US' second biggest digital ad seller, according to research firm eMarketer. Google remains the market leader.

It adds that the Yahoo's share of worldwide digital ad revenues dropped from 3.4% in 2012 to 2.9% in 2013.

To help address this the web portal has launched three new products and platforms:

• Yahoo Audience Ads - a service that aims to ensure each advert is delivered to the right audience
• Yahoo Ad Manager - a new platform to help advertisers select and manage Yahoo's products
• Yahoo Ad Exchange - a way for "premium publishers" to control how advertising appears on their sites

In addition the firm announced that sponsored posts on Tumblr - the blogging platform it acquired in May - would now be powered by the firm's Yahoo Advertising products.

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BMW demos 'drifting' self-drive car

8 January 2014 Last updated at 07:56 ET

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BMW's promotional video of its latest autonomous driving technology

BMW has shown off self-driving cars that can "drift" around bends and slalom between cones.

The modified 2-Series Coupe and 6-Series Gran Coupe are able to hurtle round a racetrack and control a power slide without any driver intervention.

Using 360-degree radar, ultrasonic sensors and cameras, the cars sense and adapt to their surroundings.

BMW demonstrated its latest autonomous driving technology at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

It is just one of several car manufacturers experimenting with the technology - Japan's Toyota has also been demonstrating its autonomous car at CES.

And Bosch, better known for its white goods and power tools, showed off its smartphone-controlled self-parking technology at the show.

Accident-prone

With about 50,000 road fatalities in the US each year, carmakers are hoping sensor- and software-controlled cars could prove less accident-prone than cars driven by humans.

One 2013 study by the Eno Center for Transportation suggested that if 10% of cars on US roads were autonomous this could reduce fatalities by about 1,000.

A number of driver assistance technologies are already being incorporated into the latest cars, from lane-drifting warnings to self-parking.

Currently California, Florida and Nevada have licensed autonomous vehicles to be tested on their public roads, and Google's fleet of 24 robot Lexus SUVs (sports utility vehicles) have clocked up about 500,000 miles of unassisted driving so far without any reported mishaps.

Autonomous vehicles are not yet allowed on European roads and we are still a long way from seeing driverless cars frequenting our streets and motorways.

But as the number of successful demonstrations grows, the cultural hurdles are probably greater than the technological ones.

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Wirelessly charged bus hits UK roads

8 January 2014 Last updated at 20:06 ET By Neil Bowdler Science and technology reporter, BBC News

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Prof John Miles of Arup shows the BBC how the new wirelessly charged buses will work

Electric buses which their developers say can run all day are set to begin service.

A fleet of eight new electric vehicles will operate along a busy route in Milton Keynes from late January.

The buses can run for longer by virtue of a wireless booster charge they receive at the start and end of the route from plates in the road.

The buses are the first of their kind to operate in the UK.

Inductive charging

The fleet will run on the Number 7 route, which covers 25km (15 miles) between the Milton Keynes suburbs of Wolverton and Bletchley and carries an estimated 800,000 passengers a year.

After a night charging at the depot, the buses will receive booster charges throughout the day at the start and end of the route.

There, the bus parks over plates buried in the road. The driver then lowers receiver plates on the bottom of the bus to within 4cm of the road surface and the bus is charged for around 10 minutes before resuming service.

The system uses a process called inductive charging. Electricity passes through wire coils in the road plates, generating a magnetic field. This field induces a voltage across coils in the bus plates and the vehicle's batteries are charged.

The new vehicles have been built by UK bus manufacturer Wrightbus and will operate as part of a five-year trial programme led by the European division of Japanese company Mitsui and UK engineering group Arup.

"Electric buses have huge potential and we're exploring how they can help us take better care of the environment without compromising passenger service," said John Bint of Milton Keynes Council.

"With the help of the project collaborators, we'll be monitoring the buses closely over the next five years."

Mr Bint told BBC News that if the buses proved a success, the plan was to roll out the system to all bus routes in the town.

John Miles, an Arup consultant and engineering research professor at Cambridge University, said: "These electric buses will be expected to do everything a diesel bus does.

"They will be operating on a demanding urban route, and that's all part of the trial's aim - to prove that electric buses can be tough as well as green."

Similar systems are already being used in Turin and Genoa in Italy, Utrecht in the Netherlands and in Mannheim in Germany.

Last year, South Korea switched on a 12km (7.5-mile) road which can recharge electric vehicles as they drive over it, without the need for vehicles to stop at all. Two public buses are using the Online Electric Vehicle system, or OLEV, in the South Korean city of Gumi.

The technology means the vehicles can be fitted with smaller, lighter batteries, reducing the amount of power required to drive them.

Follow Neil on Twitter

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Dark net treasure trail reopens

9 January 2014 Last updated at 07:56 ET By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter

A global internet puzzle that requires advanced computer skills to solve has reopened online.

It is the third year running that the mysterious Cicada 3301 has appeared, with no clues as to who is behind the puzzle.

Some believe it is a recruitment process for a government spy agency, while others believe it could be the work of a bank.

The puzzle takes people on a treasure trail around the so-called dark net.

This year's competition was announced via a Twitter account to which was attached an image file with the following message: "Hello. Epiphany is upon you. Your pilgrimage has begun. Enlightenment awaits. Good luck. 3301."

Thousands of fans have been drawn into the competition and have eagerly awaited its relaunch.

This year's iteration already appears to be fiendishly difficult, requiring understanding of OutGuess, a complex steganography tool.

Steganography hides data inside images, and is often used for nefarious purposes by terrorists and paedophiles.

Anglo-Saxon runes

Computer scientist Prof Alan Woodward is one of those who has previously taken part in the competition.

"The puzzles are very complicated and require knowledge of steganography, cryptography as well as obscure existential texts," he told the BBC.

Previous competitions have taken people on both a mental and physical journey, encompassing cyber-punk literature, Anglo-Saxon runes and the work of occultist and magician Aleister Crowley.

Last year, part of the treasure trail also required people to travel to physical locations to decode QR codes posted on telegraph poles dotted around the US.

Now that the competition is widely known about there has been a spate of fakes but for those with the necessary knowledge it is easy to spot the real thing.

"The group uses a PGP signature and put up a key signed with this," explained Prof Woodward.

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Spy recruits?

Speculation about who is behind the puzzle has been gaining momentum as the competition attracts more publicity.

"It could be a criminal organisation looking for recruits or it could be a start-up looking to set up a new crypto-currency, possibly even a bank," said Prof Woodward.

"Lots of people think it could be a government agency and that looks reasonably likely as whoever is being recruited isn't telling anybody afterwards," he added.

It is similar to an online competition posted annually by UK agency GCHQ, as part of its recruitment process.

Its 2013 competition consisted of 29 blocks of five letters which had to be deciphered. Those who successfully completed the initial test were invited to take part in a hunt around the net, which they had six weeks to finish.

Cicada is far more complicated though.

"Whoever is behind it has put an enormous amount of effort into it. It is someone with quite a lot of resources or a lot of time on their hands," said Prof Woodward.

Cicada wiki

The puzzle has intrigued so many people since it opened in 2012 that some have started to crowdsource answers.

It has led to the creation of a Cicada wiki on which puzzle solvers are invited to post significant leads and clues.

Already solvers have unlocked the first clue to this year's mystery and posted the riddle they have uncovered.

"The work of a private man who wished to transcend. He trusted himself to produce from within."

Prof Woodward himself has never solved the Cicada puzzles.

"Frankly I got bored with it, especially when it started getting into Irish poems I knew nothing about," he said.

An unknown number completed the first two tests which eventually led to an address on the dark net.

The competition organisers later posted a message which read: "We have now found the individuals we sought."

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