Inside: Digital camera blocker . 2 THE Loewy wins Guggenheim . 2 In Brief . 3 Campus Events . 4 WHISTLE FACULTY/STAFF N EWSPAPER Volume 31, Number 23 • July 17, 2006 T HE G EORGIA I NSTITUTE OF T ECHNOLOGY Counterfeit anti-malarial drugs Governor takes a tour prompt call for crackdown Jane Sanders Facundo Fernandez, an assistant pro- Research News fessor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and an author on the worsening epidemic of sophis- paper. ticated anti-malarial drug Malaria is a widespread interna- A counterfeiting in southeast tional problem, primarily in poor and Asia and Africa is increasing the likeli- developing countries in the tropics — hood of drug-resistant parasites, yield- though some cases have been report- ing false-positive results on screening ed in Florida. Transmitted by mosqui- tests and risking the lives of hun- toes, the disease infects 300 million dreds of thousands of malaria to 500 million people a year. Each patients, mostly children, researchers year, about 1.5 million of those — t l e say. mostly children — die even though F b o The situation has prompted an genuine anti-malarial drugs are quite R y b international group of researchers to effective. One of the most efficacious o t urge national and international drugs is artesunate, derived from the o h authorities to combat the problem Artemisia annua plant native to p with stringent regulations, law China. Vice Provost Charlie Liotta welcomed Governor Sonny Perdue, who came to enforcement and the provision of According to studies, the percent- campus last week to learn more about some of Georgia Tech’s alternative inexpensive medicines to undercut age of counterfeit tablets containing energy research. Meeting with members of the Strategic Energy Initiative, the counterfeiters. Based on their no artesunate apparently increased Perdue was briefed on the process for converting pine trees into ethanol, a own research and other scientists’ from 38 percent to 53 percent in naturally renewable resource that produces significantly less biohazardous studies, they outline the problem and southeast Asia between 1999 and waste than gasoline. make recommendations for address- 2004. In some countries, the majority ing it in a paper published last month of the available artesunate is fake. in the Public Library of Science jour- Meanwhile, identifying counterfeit nal PLoS Medicine. tablets has become increasingly diffi- “The manufacture and distribution cult as counterfeiters have imple- of counterfeit drugs is a massive mented sophisticated manufacturing Georgia Tech researcher international problem, and few agen- cies are investigating it,” said Drugs continued, page 3 advocates patent reform Brad Dixon like Blackberry customers from losing College of Management the right to use disputed technologies Important information about the transition until patent-infringement cases have ost people probably don’t been adjudicated. As Congress con- to a new telephone system think much about patent- tinues patent-reform hearings, the M infringement issues. But mil- U.S. Supreme Court is also weighing ne of the major Office of building-by-building basis, there will lions of Blackberry users got a wake- in on patent issues. Recently ruling Information Technology (OIT) essentially be two telephone sys- up call earlier this year when a patent that injunctions against alleged patent Oprojects currently underway tems serving Georgia Tech. lawsuit nearly shut down their wire- infringers don’t have to be mandatory is the installation of a new tele- As a result, effective July 15, five- less communication services. Though and are at the discretion of lower phone system for Georgia Tech. This digit dialing will not work reliably the lawsuit was ultimately settled for courts, the justices will consider a effort, known as Transitioning between the old and new systems. $612 million, patent issues remain in case this fall that could set new stan- Telecommunications @ Tech (T3), Therefore, it will be necessary to the headlines and on the minds of dards for when an invention is too will provide the campus with a sus- dial nine plus the full 10 digits (area many people determined to fix the obvious to patent. tainable, feature-rich voice system code and telephone number) to reli- system. Part of the Patent Reform Act that will meet current and future ably reach another campus user. Stuart Graham, an assistant profes- would make it easier to challenge needs. Upon completion of the transition, sor in the College of Management, granted patents, which many experts The transition from the Georgia the campus will return to five-digit has conducted research for the feel are being awarded too easily for Technology Authority telephone dialing. National Academies of Science that simple concepts such as “one-click” service to the new service began General information about the T3 has helped serve as a catalyst for the online shopping, currently the focus this month and is expected to con- project, including contact informa- patent reform movement now gaining of an infringement suit against eBay. clude by the end of the year. OIT tion for the team and the prelimi- steam. “It’s long been a concern that the will be working with departmental nary schedule, may be obtained by “We’re at the forefront of getting only available mechanism available to telephone coordinators and facility visiting www.oit.gatech.edu/ this policy initiative into the policy challenge patents is the high-cost managers to coordinate the prepara- campus_initiatives or contacting arena,” he said. court system, where you have inex- tion and cutover actions and sched- the project office at 894-0497. Last year, Rep. Lamar Smith (R- pert judges and really inexpert juries ule. Since the campus will be con- Updates to the project and the Texas) introduced the Patent Reform schedule will be posted on this site. verted to the new system on a Act, which could protect end users Reform continued, page 3 W W W . W H I S T L E . G A T E C H . E D U 2 July 17, 2006 “QUOTE- Don’t shoot: new device blocks digital cameras Rick Robinson Research News UNQUOTE” esearchers at Georgia Tech have completed a prototype R device that can block digital- “The people in the Homebrew camera function in a given area. Computing Club didn’t all aim to be Commercial versions of the technolo- Bill Gates. Nobody knew what was gy could be used to stymie unwanted going to happen. There was an use of video or still cameras. The prototype device, produced by interest in the technology as it first a team in the Interactive and became accessible to people who Intelligent Computing division of the didn’t work in big corporations.” Georgia Tech College of Computing, —Eugene Thacker, a professor in uses off-the-shelf equipment — cam- the School of Literature, Culture and era-mounted sensors, lighting equip- Communication, who is a member ment, a projector and a computer — of the Biotech Hobbyist collective, to scan for, find and neutralize digital which, like the famed 1970s com- cameras. puter club, is a forum for amateurs The system works by looking for to familiarize themselves with the the reflectivity and shape of the image-producing sensors used in digi- issues surrounding biotechnology. A Georgia Tech camera-neutralizing prototype could soon be used to stop movie piracy tal cameras. Gregory Abowd, an asso- (Wired News) and other forms of unwanted digital-camera photography. Shown here with the device ciate professor leading the project, are doctoral student Jay Summet and research technician James Clawson. says the new camera-neutralizing technology shows commercial prom- ise in two principal fields — protect- Retroreflections would probably make Camera neutralization’s potential ing limited areas against clandestine it relatively easy to detect and identi- has helped bring it under the wing of photography or stopping video copy- fy video cameras in a darkened the- VentureLab, a Georgia Tech group ing in larger areas such as theaters. ater. that assists fledgling companies “We’re at a point right now where The current prototype uses visible through the critical feasibility and the prototype we have developed light and two cameras to find CCDs, first-funding phases. Operating under could lead to products for markets but a future commercial system the name DominINC, Abowd’s com- that have a small, critical area to pro- might use invisible infrared lasers pany has already received a grant tect,” he said. “Then we’re also look- and photo-detecting transistors to from the Georgia Research Alliance. ing to do additional research that scan for contraband cameras. Once Abowd said that funding availabili- could increase the protected area for such a system found a suspicious ty will likely decide which technology one of our more interesting clients, spot, it would feed information on — small- or large-area — will be the motion picture industry.” the reflection’s properties to a com- developed first. James Clawson, a research techni- puter for a determination. There are some caveats, according cian on Abowd’s prototype team, said Once a scanning laser and pho- to Summet. Current camera-neutraliz- preventing movie copying could be a todetector located a video camera, ing technology may never work major application for camera-blocking the system would flash a thin beam against single-lens-reflex cameras, technology. of visible white light directly at the which use a folding-mirror viewing “Movie piracy is a $3 billion-a-year CCD. This beam — possibly a laser in system that effectively masks its CCD problem,” Clawson said. “If someone a commercial version — would over- except when a photo is actually being videotapes a movie in a theater and whelm the target camera with light, taken. Moreover, anti-digital tech- THE then puts it up on the Web, the rendering recorded video unusable.