It’s a terrible thing to think about, but the people who stand up for human rights are often mistreated and even killed for their beliefs. In 2009, a human rights activist named Natalia Estemirova was kidnapped and murdered while performing her important human rights work. Human rights defenders are often attacked in remote locations and their fates can remain a mystery for untold lengths of time. The Natalia Project was formed in Estemirova’s honor to help other civil rights activists stay safe.

The project involves an alarm worn on the activist’s wrist. If the wearer is injured, attacked or abducted in the line of duty, he or she can manually trigger the wristlet’s alarm. The alarm will sound on its own if the bracelet is removed forcefully. A signal goes out to the Civil Rights Defenders and a network of committed individuals who then spread the word on the activist’s situation. The activist’s location is transmitted via the GPS located in the bracelet.

All parts of the network have jobs to perform. Some send reports to news outlets, some speak to the media, some work with government officials to ensure the safety of the endangered activist. The regimes behind the kidnappings and other atrocities obviously want to avoid having their actions broadcast to the entire world, so the Natalia Project aims to shine a spotlight on them. The bracelets will start appearing on the arms of civil rights workers any day now.

The post Anti-Kidnap Bracelet Keeps Human Rights Workers Safe first appeared on Gajitz.

The whole purpose of social networking is to give us another way to connect with people – so why does it sometimes feel like we’re more isolated from other humans than ever before? A young company called Trovare has developed Amico as a way to translate Facebook into the real world.

Using a flexible wristband and a smartphone app, Amico quietly and privately helps you find like-minded people wherever you are. The Amico app connects to your Facebook profile and, when you’re out, searches for nearby folks whose profiles are similar to yours. When you’re near someone who might be compatible as a friend or partner (and who also happens to use the Amico product, of course), the wristband vibrates.

The magical part of the system is that the app doesn’t tell you which of the people nearby is a potential match. You have to figure that part out on your own by mingling and mixing with the crowd. This fun bit of mystery lets Amico avoid being a “dating app” and instead lets it be something truly unique: a tool that tells you when your potential soul mate or future BFF is within small-talk distance.

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It might sound cynical, but waking up sucks. There is seriously nothing you can say or do to make us believe that there is a way to make alarm clocks fun. The folks behind Talk O’Clock sure are trying, though. They’ve put together a pretty weird P2P wake-up call service that will allow total strangers to call you and rouse you from your much-needed dream time.

The system works by matching up sleepers and wakers via an online database. People who want to be woken up choose their alarm time and the gender they want to hear on the phone. Their names are put into the database and people who want to make wake-up calls can choose their victims. The system encourages callers to be “creative” in the way they wake up sleepers.

In the event that a waker can’t be matched up with a wakee, a robot voice makes the wake-up call. The service is free for both sides and the Talk O’Clock people say that there aren’t any privacy issues to worry about, although it seems like the system would be pretty easy to exploit for fun.

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Peer-to-peer file sharing can be dangerous ground, depending on what you’re sharing. PirateBox offers a safe, anonymous way to share files and communicate with anyone in the same physical space without fear of Big Brother butting in.

Created by art and technology professor David Darts for the purpose of sharing files in class with his students, the PirateBox soon morphed into something even more thrilling: a way to circumvent logging in and exposing personal information.

In essence, the PirateBox is a portable, temporary file sharing network. The box broadcasts an open WiFi network that anyone in the vicinity can join. Users can upload and download any files they wish and communicate anonymously with one another. No user data is recorded, so there’s no fear of the entertainment police coming down on you for downloading an album from the guy at the next table in the coffee shop.

Of course, a lack of accountability also means that the potential for shenanigans is high. Downloading anything from someone you don’t know is risky…so users have to weigh that risk against the benefits of the anonymous network.

Darts says that he isn’t exactly encouraging piracy; the name was meant to be provocative and a play on the infamous Pirate Bay name. If you want to build your own PirateBox and have around $100 to spend on supplies, the instructions can be found here.

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Information overload is a very real problem for many modern humans. The problem is only increased by our mobile computing devices, smartphones and other gadgets that let us stay in touch and share information no matter where we are. ASUS thinks their Waveface system is the solution to the problem. The system gives you smarter updates, bringing you only the information that’s relevant to you at that moment through an intelligent network of devices.

When you’re on the go, you’d wear the stylish wristwatch-type smartphone seen above. Your personal network would realize that you’re mobile and would only push information to you that you need right then. But when you’re at home, the connected HDTV would give you the whole picture: your documents, communications, schedule and whatever else you need. There’s even a portable touchscreen tablet that would let you integrate the times you’re semi-mobile but not at home, like in the office or at a business lunch.

The above video, recorded at the ASUS event inside CES 2010, shows how the system works. The wearable component is the most interesting part: it’s built around a flexible OLED display, and the exterior is a touchscreen. The device can be operated by touch, or simply by gestures. The Waveface is firmly in concept territory at the moment, but we can definitely see something like this hitting the market soon and taking some of the info burden off of weary office workers.

The post Info Overload? ASUS’ Three-Part Plan to Virtual Freedom first appeared on Gajitz.