Hacking Democracy – the Hursti Hack (Demonstration and Testing)
The Hursti Hack was a successful attempt to alter the votes recorded on a Diebold optical scan voting machine. The hack is named after Harri Hursti. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hursti_Hack
“Can the votes on this Diebold system be hacked using the memory card?”
2 people voted Yes. 6 people voted No. The machine reported 7 Yes, 1 No.
As a software “hacker” (in the proper, non-malicious definition), I can say this is definitely a completely valid and utterly shocking “hack” that may have affected countless elections over the years…
“If I had not seen what was behind this, I’d have no reason not to, I would have certified this election as a true and accurate result of a vote.” – Ion Sancho, Supervisor of Elections, Leon County, Florida.
Harri Hursti Explains the Hursti Hack to the NH Legislature
In September 2007 Finnish computer security specialist testified to the New Hampshire legislature and the NH Secretary of State. Hursti explained the risks and vulnerabilities of the tamper-friendly Diebold optical scanners counting 81% of New Hampshire ballots. The legislature and the Secretary of State responded to his testimony by doing absolutely nothing.
Hacking Democracy is a 2006 documentary film by producer Robert Carrillo Cohen and producer / directors Russell Michaels and Simon Ardizzone, shown on HBO. Filmed over three years it documents American citizens investigating anomalies and irregularities with ‘e-voting’ (electronic voting) systems that occurred during the 2000 and 2004 elections in the U.S.A., especially in Volusia County, Florida. The film investigates the flawed integrity of electronic voting machines, particularly those made by Diebold Election Systems, and the film culminates dramatically in the on-camera hacking of the in-use / working Diebold election system in Leon County, Florida.
In 2007 Hacking Democracy was nominated for an Emmy award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism
The Young Director Award has supported and promoted debuting international creative talent in commercial film production since 1998.
The YDA is the only award specifically dedicated to beginners. As a result, the award has become a pioneer breaking ground for directors using new technologies and progressive techniques.
The Young Director Award is recognized as the most important fringe event of the Cannes Lions, attracting over 300 participants and over 900 spectators every year. This gives considerable exposure to the winning directors.
The Award is divided into two sections: European and Non-European directors.
This multi-sensory illusion uses vision, touch and position sense to create the illusion that the hand has disappeared. The felt positions of the hands are gradually adapted without the participant noticing so that the real locations of the hands end up further outwards than their perceived locations. When the right hand is removed from vision and the participant reaches across to touch it, all they can feel is the empty table. The combined loss of vision and touch creates a powerful illusion that the hand is missing and was designed to simulate loss of awareness in stroke patients.
When you stare directly at the faces, they look normal. But, if you stare at the cross, the faces quickly turn ugly.
Like many interesting scientific discoveries, this one was an accident. An undergraduate student was working on face photographs for an unrelated experiment when he was suddenly shocked by the deformed faces staring back at him.
The distortion comes from the many differences between each face and the one that follows. A particularly tanned face, for example, will make the next face seem pale and squinty eyes will make normal eyes bulge.
An automated system that detects when online pupils are distracted or snoozing and then uses tricks to keep them alert
WE ALL remember dozing off during a boring class at school. A robotic teacher that monitors students’ attention levels and mimics the techniques human teachers use to hold their pupils’ attention promises to end the snoozing, especially for students who have their lessons online. Tests indicate the robot can boost how much students remember from their lessons.
The article mentions the Wakamaru Robot. Here’s a demo
Students at the Kudan Elementary School in downtown Tokyo were told a special teacher would help them with their science class.
But few expected the teacher would need three grown men to help her up to the podium or need special programming to talk.
Saya, the substitute teacher, is a robot.
Built by Professor Hiroshi Kobayashi of Tokyo University of Science, he says shes not meant to take away the jobs of teachers.
[Hiroshi Kobayashi, Tokyo University Professor]:
“We are not looking at making something that will take over teachers, but rather our main reason for building this robot is to use new technology to teach children about technology.”
But Saya may be able to help in schools where there is a shortage of teachers.
[Hiroshi Kobayashi, Tokyo University Professor]:
“We are not looking at making something that will take over teachers, but rather our main reason for building this robot is to use new technology to teach children about technology.”
But Saya may be able to help in schools where there is a shortage of teachers.
[Hiroshi Kobayashi, Tokyo University Professor]:
“In the countryside and in some small schools, there are children who do not have the opportunity to come into contact with new technology, and also there are few teachers out there that can teach these lessons, so we also hope to be able to develop this robot so it can be remotely controlled to teach these classes.”
Saya, was a hit with the children.
[Nanako Iijima, Student]:
“Its so much more fun than regular classes.”
Most students were mesmerized by the robot.
[Masaru Tabata, Student]:
“It was great seeing the robot moving and speaking.”
But the class teacher was not convinced Saya was ready to go full time.
[Akito Fukuda, Science Teacher]:
“I think on the one hand I am impressed that they’ve got robots to go this far, but on the other hand they still have a long way to research before they create a truly robotic teacher.”
The curiosity of the children did not stop after the class.
