Researcher Karin Ljubic Fister studies plant-based data storage, which involves modifying genes, bacteria and infected plants to store information in the very genetic sequences of species. Once a coding system is established, generally a form of substitution cipher, it can added to the DNA of a bacterium and used to infect a plant.

“Imagine walking through a park that is actually a library,” she says, “every plant, flower and shrub full of archived information. You sit down on a bench, touch your handheld DNA reader to a leaf and listen to the Rolling Stones directly from it, or choose a novel or watch a documentary amid the greenery.”

The result is not just data storage that lasts for the life of a given crop, but storage that is heritable, each new generation containing a “Hello World” program or whatever else you want to implant within it

Imagine using, for instance, a global seed vault to store data as well as seeds, a backup system invulnerable to EMPs – a whole world’s worth of information packed into a pile of corn and peas.

Plants could, of course, also be used to seed landscapes of communication, fertile grounds could become a more complex storage system, with different plots to store parts of a larger informational set,

Imagine: farms and other ecosystems as vast organic archives. No more time wasted trying to see the forest from the trees – there could be a whole new layer information in the mix as well. (h/t Geoff Manaugh)

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The old Mission: Impossible TV series, secret agents received their missions via recordings that would self-destruct shortly after receipt. It was an effective method of keeping those secret missions private – as far as we know, the baddies never got ahold of any mission tapes, allowing the agents to successfully carry out their campaigns against evil.

These days, data is shared far more frequently and in so many ways it’s kind of mind-blowing. Even sensitive digital information is vulnerable to hackers, disgruntled employees, and the general public in some unintentional cases. Artist Diego Trujillo Pisanty has created an art piece that takes us back to a simpler time when data breaches were far less common because hard copies of documents are so much harder to steal than digital copies.

This Tape Will Self Destruct is a small printer that perfectly mixes the past and the present. It prints fictional Cold War images and texts with excerpts of actual NSA documents brought into the public eye by Edward Snowden. Shortly after the printer spits out its meaningless message, the paper self-ignites and fire consumes the printout, permanently erasing its information.

The project is an insightful exploration of the relationship we have with secrecy and data sharing. We expect to be informed at all times, but government agencies argue that some secrecy is necessary for national security. This little printer hearkens back to the pre-digital age when having information meant having a piece of paper in your hands or a memory in your mind rather than words on a screen or hard drive.

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We are all naked in a way when we share our information online. We expose our personal lives to the world, and the scary thing is that most people don’t even realize just how much personal information they’re broadcasting. NYU students Xuedi Chen and Pedro G. C. Oliveira collaborated on a project called x.pose that makes that digital nakedness a lot more tangible.

X.pose is a personalized, 3D printed mesh armature that sits over 20 reactive displays. Each little display window represents an area of New York; when the wearer is in a certain neighborhood, the corresponding display will change opacity to expose the wearer’s skin. The physical exposure corresponds to the digital exposure caused by our always-on location-revealing services like Google and Facebook. The more information is shared, the more the wearer’s skin is exposed.

Google, Facebook, and other services have gained our permission – often through long, difficult-to-understand terms and conditions that most people don’t bother to read – to track our movements and actions. We have become pieces of data to be triangulated and compiled, and plenty of mobile app junkies have no idea just how much of their personal information they share with the world every day.

For this particular project, the designers created a proprietary mobile app. The app broadcasts the wearer’s digital data for anyone to follow. Xuedi Chen wears the x.pose suit and her trail of information is reflected in the increasing transparency of her already-risqué ensemble.

The x.pose project is a wake-up call to those who think that their data is safe in the digital realm. Unless we are very careful to avoid using location-based apps (which more or less means leaving the smartphone at home), we are constantly sending data out into the aether. This exposes us not only theoretically, but in a very real sense as well. Chen and Oliveira’s project puts the concept of over-sharing into an easy to understand (and quite attention-grabbing) context.

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With the invention of the ‘Superman memory crystal,’ scientists have found a better use for a piece of quartz than the New Age industry. They’ve created what is seemingly the world’s most amazing zip drive.

Working at the University of Southampton, the researchers surpassed the 3D realm, recording and retrieving five dimensions of digital data in the form of a quartz crystal. Besides presumably being able to steer L. Ron Hubbard’s mothership, the Superman memory crystal boasts a 360 terabyte per disc hard drive, a 1000 degree thermal capacity and an almost endless lifetime.

Self-assembled nanostructures created in quartz store the data, which is “realized in five dimensions,” according to a press release. “The self-assembled nanostructures change the way light travels through glass, modifying polarization of light that can then be read by combination of optical microscope and a polarizer, similar to that found in Polaroid sunglasses.”

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Have you ever gotten a little chill down your spine as you walk past mannequins in a department store? That chill may soon be well deserved since an Italian company introduced a new line of mannequins that really are watching you. EyeSee mannequins from a company called Almax feature cameras and microprocessors in their heads, allowing the mannequins to gather information about shoppers.

The mannequins would be placed in strategic positions in stores, such as at the entrance or near important displays. The cameras and microprocessors in the mannequin heads would measure data like demographic information based on facial recognition. Data like ages, races, and genders of shoppers could be measured (like on the screen above), along with how many people visit a certain part of the store in a set time period and how long they hang around.

The company is quick to point out that the data processing would all be done on-site inside the mannequins, so no demographic or personal data would be stored or transmitted. According to Almax, the anonymous data can be used by the stores to adapt their staffing and displays to the customers – all without revealing any personal information. But that doesn’t change the fact that the mannequins will be creepily spying on you as you shop, which is enough to make us stay at home and give more of our business to Amazon.

The post The Dummies Have Eyes: Store Mannequins Spy on Shoppers first appeared on Gajitz.