Sensors

Speeding may be dangerous for drivers, but it could soon be a boon for California's fiscal health. Tucked deep into the budget that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled Friday is a plan to give cities and counties the green light to install speed sensors on red-light cameras to catch -- and ticket -- speeding cars. Those whizzing by the radar-equipped detectors at up to 15 mph over the limit would have to pay $225 per violation. Those going faster would be fined $325. Small-government advocates want to put the brakes on the plan.

Fly toy helicopters with your mind. Be a DJ and shift musical tracks based on how you feel. Wiggle robotic cat ears by increasing your state of calm. Astonishing advances in the ability to harness brain waves have made the fantastic notion of moving and controlling objects with the mind possible. Now neuroscientists are grappling with another challenge: Find a "killer app" that will demonstrate the true potential of tapping into brain waves and ignite the neurotechnology revolution.

Fly toy helicopters with your mind. Be a DJ and shift musical tracks based on how you feel. Wiggle robotic cat ears by increasing your state of calm. Astonishing advances in the ability to harness brain waves have made the fantastic notion of moving and controlling objects with the mind possible. Now neuroscientists are grappling with another challenge: Find a "killer app" that will demonstrate the true potential of tapping into brain waves and ignite the neurotechnology revolution.

Two different approaches to alerting the public about earthquakes are vying for the state's support, one based on a network of government-operated sensors, the other built around a private company's equipment. In a move that may shed some light for policymakers, the California Emergency Management Agency has pulled together a group of experts to make recommendations on how to implement an earthquake early warning system. Then again, maybe it won't. The Cal EMA working group includes representatives of both factions, and their diverging views may prove impossible to reconcile.

WASHINGTON - An Obama administration plan to install new cameras and improved ground sensors along the Southwest border has stalled, potentially creating unnecessary dangers for agents there. Officials say a false alarm from a ground sensor in southern Arizona was to blame when several U.S. Border Patrol agents rushed to the remote canyon on horseback Oct. 2, shortly after midnight. For reasons still unclear, the agents opened fire on one another. One was killed and another wounded.

Three strangers waited for the elevator in the lobby of a Mid-Wilshire-area office building Monday morning. One of them pushed the "up" button. Nothing happened. He pushed it again. Still nothing. Five long minutes passed. Resigned, the man took a Korean-language newspaper from a stand and started reading. Similar scenes played out across the region Monday after Sunday's magnitude 7.2 earthquake in Baja California stopped or slowed elevator service in many Southern California buildings.

Don't be surprised if one day your refrigerator nags you to lose weight, your phone blocks calls it figures you're too stressed to handle, and your wisecracking car entertains you with pun-filled one liners. Within a decade or two, researchers at Silicon Valley companies and elsewhere predict, consumer gadgets will be functioning like hyper-attentive butlers, anticipating and fulfilling people's needs without having to be told. Life would not only be more convenient, it might even last longer: Devices could monitor people's health and step in when needed to help them get better.

Pilotless aircraft that so far have been used mostly to identify targets in Afghanistan are likely to play an even greater role as the United States expands its military campaign there. Although the drones continue to be a key reconnaissance tool, they are increasingly being used to provide immediate damage assessments, allowing fighter jets to quickly return to targets that may have been missed by earlier airstrikes.

Two different approaches to alerting the public about earthquakes are vying for the state's support, one based on a network of government-operated sensors, the other built around a private company's equipment. In a move that may shed some light for policymakers, the California Emergency Management Agency has pulled together a group of experts to make recommendations on how to implement an earthquake early warning system. Then again, maybe it won't. The Cal EMA working group includes representatives of both factions, and their diverging views may prove impossible to reconcile.

Slave to your email? Wonder what would happen if you had to do without it? UC Irvine informatics professor Gloria Mark was curious - so she recently led a study that separated 13 people from their email for five days and recorded what happened when they unplugged. Mark spoke with The Times about the joys and sorrows of ditching email and why the Army is interested in her research. What made you want to see how people fared without email? That was way back in 2005. I had this crazy idea that people were addicted to email.

In the seismic annals of California, Monday's magnitude 4.7 earthquake was little more than a footnote. It gave Southern California a small morning jolt but caused no damage and was largely shrugged off by noon. But in one important way, the quake was highly significant because it marked an advance in California's burgeoning earthquake early warning system. The quake struck in the desert town of Anza, about 35 miles south of Palm Springs, and hundreds of sensors embedded in the ground immediately sent an alert to seismologists at Caltech in Pasadena.

The Watts Towers in South Los Angeles will be the subject of a new study conducted by experts from UCLA to determine the stability of the historic sculptures, which were completed by Simon Rodia in 1954. The study, now  underway, is expected to be completed by early next year. Chief among the concerns are cracks that have plagued the towers for many years. Sensors have been placed around the site to measure variables such as wind and sun exposure. Experts are also measuring the effects that earthquakes have had on the sculptures.  The study is being carried out by engineers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Re "FasTrak computer may not be so swift," Column, March 5 Modern digital systems and their associated sensors can be troublesome occasionally. The automated toll collector FasTrak is such a system. I have been a FasTrak user since it was initiated on the 91 Express Lane between Orange and Riverside counties. After I bought a new car, I started getting violation notices. I called the Orange County Transportation Authority to resolve the problem, which turned out to be the result of an old transponder, the sensors on my car and the placement of the transponder in my car. The violations were removed from my record, I paid no fines and I've sorted out the transponder placement.

Leap Motion has announced it will begin shipping and selling its computer motion sensor control this May. The company made waves last year when it introduced the control, which shares the company's name, with a series of YouTube videos showing users controlling their machines much like the way video game players use the Xbox Kinect motion sensor. Despite originally setting and missing a January deadline, the Leap Motion will start shipping to users on May 13. It will also go on sale at Best Buy stores a few days later on May 19. PHOTOS: Tech we want to see in 2013 The company said users interested in buying the device, can pre-order it from Leap Motion or BestBuy.com now for $79.99 plus shipping and taxes . The company also said that users who pre-ordered their device before Wednesday will receive the Leap Motion for the $69.99 price they were promised.

When a major earthquake strikes, seconds count. In the devastating 2011 Japan earthquake, a sensor embedded in the ground detected the first signs of movement and immediately sent out an alert at the speed of light. Within seconds, text messages warning of impending shaking went out to roughly 50 million people. Many people in Tokyo, 200 miles away from the epicenter, knew the quake was coming before they felt the shaking about 30 seconds later. Trains were able to slow down or stop, and not a single car derailed.

LAS VEGAS -- One ounce: the difference between you and Tiger Woods? Could be, according to Mobiplex Inc., a Silicon Valley company showcasing at the Pepcom-sponsored Digital Experience event Monday night during the CES convention in Las Vegas. The business' SwingTip device is small - weighing about one ounce and roughly the size of a USB flash drive - and slides into a lightweight holster that clamps onto any golf club. But for its Santa Clara maker, the selling point is the gadget's ability to track and analyze users' golf swings using motion sensors.

The Watts Towers in South Los Angeles will be the subject of a new study conducted by experts from UCLA to determine the stability of the historic sculptures, which were completed by Simon Rodia in 1954. The study, now  underway, is expected to be completed by early next year. Chief among the concerns are cracks that have plagued the towers for many years. Sensors have been placed around the site to measure variables such as wind and sun exposure. Experts are also measuring the effects that earthquakes have had on the sculptures.  The study is being carried out by engineers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.

By Sandi Doughton The first earthquake rattled Mt. St. Helens on March 20, 1980 — nearly two months before the mountain erupted. But it took awhile for anyone to notice. The sole seismometer on the peak was linked to an apparatus at the University of Washington that recorded squiggles on 16-mm film. Twenty minutes of chemical processing yielded an image so tiny scientists used a magnifying glass to make out details. A punch-card computer chugged for half an hour before spitting out an estimate of the epicenter.

By now you've probably seen a reference to "Big Data," especially if you're interested in technology , marketing trends or the mechanics of political campaigns . It's such a hot topic, it's even found its way into newspaper editorials . As the volume of coverage implies, there's something important going on here, perhaps even transformational. The enormous amount of information being generated and collected daily by websites, smartphones and a global array of sensors has the potential to change how products are developed and sold, how services are delivered, how children are educated -- the list goes on and on. But what does "Big Data" actually mean, and how do the calculations of data scientists translate into something that matters to the average person?

It's possible that not every problem has a technological solution. That will come as a shock to U.S. policymakers, who since the 9/11 terrorist attacks have invested in multiple technologies to protect us from evildoers. Some have been a success, while others - such as enhanced surveillance techniques or airport scanners that can peer through clothing - are often seen as unacceptable invasions of privacy. And then there are ideas that simply don't work or are impractical, such as scanning every shipping container entering U.S. ports for nuclear weapons.