Story Highlights
• GPS receivers threatened by powerful solar flares
• Solar burst on December 6 disrupted most GPS receivers
• Solar activity rises and falls in 11-year cycles
• Next storm peak expected in 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Global Positioning System, relied on for everything from navigating cars and airplanes to transferring money between banks, may be threatened by powerful solar flares, a panel of scientists warned Wednesday.
"Our increasingly technologically dependent society is becoming increasingly vulnerable to space weather," David L. Johnson, director of the National Weather Service, said at a briefing.
GPS receivers have become widely used in recent years, using satellite signals in navigating airplanes, ships and automobiles, and in using cell phones, mining, surveying and many other commercial uses.
Indeed, banks use the system to synchronize money transfers, "so space weather can affect all of us, right down to our wallet," said Anthea J. Coster, an atmospheric scientist at the Haystack Observatory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The cause for their concern, Johnson said, was an unexpected solar radio burst on December 6 that affected virtually every GPS receiver on the lighted half of Earth. Some receivers had a reduction in accuracy while others completely lost the ability to determine position, he said.
Solar activity rises and falls in 11-year cycles, with the next peak expected in 2011.
If that increasing level of activity produces more such radio bursts the GPS system could be seriously affected, the researchers said.
And protecting the system is no simple task, added Paul M. Kintner Jr., a professor of electrical engineering at Cornell University, who monitored the December event.
There are two possible ways to shield the system, he said, both very expensive. Either alter all GPS antennas to screen out solar signals or replace all of the GPS satellites with ones that broadcast a stronger signal.
That's why it's essential to learn more about the sun's behavior quickly in an effort to find ways to predict such events, the researchers said.
In addition to the GPS system, the December solar flare affected satellites and induced unexpected currents in the electrical grid, Johnson said.
"The effects were more profound than we expected and more widespread than we expected," added Kintner.
Dale E. Gary, chairman of the physics department of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, said the burst produced 10 times more radio noise than any burst previously recorded.
The difference between that burst and normal solar radio emissions "was like the difference between the noise level of a normal conversation and the noise level in the front row of a rock concert," he said.
"This is a wake-up call" to improve technology, commented Anthony J. Mannucci, group supervisor at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Patricia H. Doherty, co-director of the Institute for Scientific Research at Boston College, said the burst affected but did not shut down the Federal Aviation Administration's Wide Area Augmentation System, which uses GPS signals to assist in navigation.
Most of the WAAS ground stations were able to maintain contact with enough satellites to continue working, though their accuracy was somewhat affected, she said.
The stations have to maintain contact with at least four satellites to work, but usually monitor at least 10 to increase their accuracy, she said. Most were able to meet the minimum, she said.
The briefing came at a Space Weather Enterprise Forum convened by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to discuss the effects of solar activity. Because of its increasing importance, Johnson said, the Weather Service's Space Environment Center was converted from a mainly research center in 2005 to an operational center reporting on solar activity and its impacts.
Turkey to block 'insulting' Web sites
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- A parliamentary commission approved a proposal Thursday allowing Turkey to block Web sites that are deemed insulting to the founder of modern Turkey, weeks after a Turkish court temporarily barred access to YouTube.
Parliament plans to vote on the proposal, though a date was not announced. The proposal indicates the discomfort that many Turks feel about Western-style freedom of expression, even though Turkey has been implementing widespread reforms in its bid to join the European Union.
On Thursday, lawmakers in the commission also debated whether the proposal should be widened to allow the Turkish Telecommunications Board to block access to any sites that question the principles of the Turkish secular system or the unity of the Turkish state -- a reference to Web sites with information on Kurdish rebels in Turkey.
It is illegal in Turkey to talk of breaking up the state or to insult Ataturk, the revered founder of modern Turkey whose image graces every denomination of currency and whose portrait hangs in nearly all government offices.
Ataturk is held to be responsible for creating a secular republic from the crumbling, Islamic Ottoman Empire.
Several prominent Turkish journalists and writers, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, have been tried for allegedly insulting Ataturk or for the crime of insulting "Turkishness."
European calls for free speech have angered some nationalist Turks, who view the recommendations as interference in their internal affairs.
Last month, Turkey blocked access to the popular video-sharing site YouTube after a complaint that some videos insulted Ataturk. The ban was lifted two days later.
Parliament plans to vote on the proposal, though a date was not announced. The proposal indicates the discomfort that many Turks feel about Western-style freedom of expression, even though Turkey has been implementing widespread reforms in its bid to join the European Union.
On Thursday, lawmakers in the commission also debated whether the proposal should be widened to allow the Turkish Telecommunications Board to block access to any sites that question the principles of the Turkish secular system or the unity of the Turkish state -- a reference to Web sites with information on Kurdish rebels in Turkey.
It is illegal in Turkey to talk of breaking up the state or to insult Ataturk, the revered founder of modern Turkey whose image graces every denomination of currency and whose portrait hangs in nearly all government offices.
Ataturk is held to be responsible for creating a secular republic from the crumbling, Islamic Ottoman Empire.
Several prominent Turkish journalists and writers, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, have been tried for allegedly insulting Ataturk or for the crime of insulting "Turkishness."
European calls for free speech have angered some nationalist Turks, who view the recommendations as interference in their internal affairs.
Last month, Turkey blocked access to the popular video-sharing site YouTube after a complaint that some videos insulted Ataturk. The ban was lifted two days later.
Smart cameras spot shady behavior
By Dean Irvine for CNN
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- Ever felt like you were being watched? With the rise in the number of surveillance cameras on our streets and in our offices, more often than not you are.
But rather than just watching you, the next generation of surveillance cameras will be able to tell if you're up to no good and, developers hope, spot crimes and misdemeanors before they happen.
Normally it is down to the judgment of a security guard watching a bank of monitors to decide if something looks suspicious on one of their screens.
However, with an average of over 100 monitors for each security guard to keep an eye on, it is practically an impossible task. There is also the loss in attention that naturally occurs when people are sitting watching screens nonstop.
Industry experts suggest that after 12 minutes of continuous video monitoring an operator will miss up to 45 percent of screen activity. That rises to up to 95 percent after 22 minutes.
Too many screens, not enough eyeballs
Trying to solve the problem of too many monitors and not enough pairs of eyes is Dr. Sergio Velastin of Kingston University in the UK.
"Humans will always be better than machines at spotting real behavior, but most security guards have an almost impossible task to watch so many screens all the time that they can't be used practically," Velastin told CNN.
Velastin has been developing the software with Ipsotek, a UK based company, pioneering the new visual imaging devices.
"Most people do things in a fairly straight forward way and we're able to gain statistical knowledge of what they do. From that it follows that you can raise an alarm if something is deemed 'infrequent', which usually means abnormal or suspicious," he said.
It sounds simple enough, but the task of creating a computer program that can filter out all the normal background goings on of a situation, be it on a train station platform or high street, has proved to be extremely complex.
Rather than going down the route of face recognition technology, the program tries to keep it simple by comparing any number of situations and actions that would be captured by a camera with an empty background.
By using an algorithm to tell the normal from the abnormal, the software is able to alert a security guard if it deems something to be out of the ordinary.
A person standing close to the edge of a train platform might not necessarily be an immediate suicide risk, but the program is able to track that person and evaluate the amount of time they've been there and so constantly monitor the situation.
"We remove the background furniture of a picture and just highlight the new people and objects. This is moving on from things like a medium motion sensor. That's fine for things like a prison fence, but not for the London Underground or a busy shopping street where you constantly have movement," said Velastin.
Watching out for civil liberties
In the UK there is approximately one surveillance camera for every 14 people and issues of invading civil liberties surround ever new development in our surveillance society.
One advantage of the new technology is that it is less invasive than face recognition software. Civil liberties groups have criticized technology that searches for particular people as it brings with it fears of profiling and of being watched regardless of whether anything illegal was being committed or not.
There is still some way to go before a "smart camera" can tell the difference between details such as a handshake and a punch, but Velastin believes they are not too far away.
"At the moment you can't get a camera that can do that, not in a meaningful way, but this is something we are working towards. In three to five years we hope to have a program that would identify from your walk whether or not you are carrying a gun," he told CNN.
High-definition smart cameras are also being developed in the U.S. by Interact Public Safety Systems. Their system is digital, which means that any dubious-looking activity can be watched remotely from hand-held devices or via the Internet.
The company has trialed its technology at a U.S. high school and can be tailored to look for certain abnormal behavior.
With the application of these smart cameras, ranging from spotting crimes on the high street or traffic violations to keeping children safe at school, the issue or who decides what is deemed suspicious comes into focus.
"Prejudices could be built into rule-based programs that have instructions of what should be spotted. There are elements of profiling in this and the possibility for abuse," says Velastin.
"But I'm into this because I'm socially minded and believe that what we're doing is creating technology that gives us a better chance to police properly. It's hard to do an audit trail of what someone does in a control room and with this technology there is less chance for abuse," he told CNN.
"In society we have to make a judgment of how far we want to be watched and how much we want to feel protected," said Velastin.
Moving from public spaces to our homes, Velastin believes the technology could provide a solution to caring for the elderly. "I wouldn't want someone watching me through a video camera 24 hours a day, but I might feel OK if a computer or robot was doing it. Given the choice what would you rather?"
Adjust font size:
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Ever felt like you were being watched? With the rise in the number of surveillance cameras on our streets and in our offices, more often than not you are.
But rather than just watching you, the next generation of surveillance cameras will be able to tell if you're up to no good and, developers hope, spot crimes and misdemeanors before they happen.
Normally it is down to the judgment of a security guard watching a bank of monitors to decide if something looks suspicious on one of their screens.
However, with an average of over 100 monitors for each security guard to keep an eye on, it is practically an impossible task. There is also the loss in attention that naturally occurs when people are sitting watching screens nonstop.
Industry experts suggest that after 12 minutes of continuous video monitoring an operator will miss up to 45 percent of screen activity. That rises to up to 95 percent after 22 minutes.
Too many screens, not enough eyeballs
Trying to solve the problem of too many monitors and not enough pairs of eyes is Dr. Sergio Velastin of Kingston University in the UK.
"Humans will always be better than machines at spotting real behavior, but most security guards have an almost impossible task to watch so many screens all the time that they can't be used practically," Velastin told CNN.
Velastin has been developing the software with Ipsotek, a UK based company, pioneering the new visual imaging devices.
"Most people do things in a fairly straight forward way and we're able to gain statistical knowledge of what they do. From that it follows that you can raise an alarm if something is deemed 'infrequent', which usually means abnormal or suspicious," he said.
It sounds simple enough, but the task of creating a computer program that can filter out all the normal background goings on of a situation, be it on a train station platform or high street, has proved to be extremely complex.
Rather than going down the route of face recognition technology, the program tries to keep it simple by comparing any number of situations and actions that would be captured by a camera with an empty background.
By using an algorithm to tell the normal from the abnormal, the software is able to alert a security guard if it deems something to be out of the ordinary.
A person standing close to the edge of a train platform might not necessarily be an immediate suicide risk, but the program is able to track that person and evaluate the amount of time they've been there and so constantly monitor the situation.
"We remove the background furniture of a picture and just highlight the new people and objects. This is moving on from things like a medium motion sensor. That's fine for things like a prison fence, but not for the London Underground or a busy shopping street where you constantly have movement," said Velastin.
Watching out for civil liberties
In the UK there is approximately one surveillance camera for every 14 people and issues of invading civil liberties surround ever new development in our surveillance society.
One advantage of the new technology is that it is less invasive than face recognition software. Civil liberties groups have criticized technology that searches for particular people as it brings with it fears of profiling and of being watched regardless of whether anything illegal was being committed or not.
There is still some way to go before a "smart camera" can tell the difference between details such as a handshake and a punch, but Velastin believes they are not too far away.
"At the moment you can't get a camera that can do that, not in a meaningful way, but this is something we are working towards. In three to five years we hope to have a program that would identify from your walk whether or not you are carrying a gun," he told CNN.
High-definition smart cameras are also being developed in the U.S. by Interact Public Safety Systems. Their system is digital, which means that any dubious-looking activity can be watched remotely from hand-held devices or via the Internet.
The company has trialed its technology at a U.S. high school and can be tailored to look for certain abnormal behavior.
With the application of these smart cameras, ranging from spotting crimes on the high street or traffic violations to keeping children safe at school, the issue or who decides what is deemed suspicious comes into focus.
"Prejudices could be built into rule-based programs that have instructions of what should be spotted. There are elements of profiling in this and the possibility for abuse," says Velastin.
"But I'm into this because I'm socially minded and believe that what we're doing is creating technology that gives us a better chance to police properly. It's hard to do an audit trail of what someone does in a control room and with this technology there is less chance for abuse," he told CNN.
"In society we have to make a judgment of how far we want to be watched and how much we want to feel protected," said Velastin.
Moving from public spaces to our homes, Velastin believes the technology could provide a solution to caring for the elderly. "I wouldn't want someone watching me through a video camera 24 hours a day, but I might feel OK if a computer or robot was doing it. Given the choice what would you rather?"
Gambarota: Riding the clean technology wave
By Kevin Voigt
For CNN
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HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Lucien Gambarota sees energy everywhere.
The 49-year-old Italian inventor -- whose day job for years has been creating toys and connecting Chinese manufacturers with European companies -- decided to get into the energy business when he saw his electricity bills triple during the long, hot summers in subtropical Hong Kong, where he is based.
"Suddenly I'm paying (US$1,000) a month for electric bills, and I thought, 'This is really crazy'," he says. "Hong Kong is surrounded by natural energy --the waves of the sea, the wind."
With investors and a business partner, Gambarota formed Motorwave Ltd., an alternative energy producer. The company is working on techniques to harness wave movement to collect energy and extract hydrogen for fuel cells and tapping into the sweat of treadmill runners at a local gym to generate electricity.
The company's latest creation, developed in conjunction with the University of Hong Kong, is a micro-wind turbine: a device small enough to be placed on rooftops or apartment balconies yet able to generate as much as 40 percent of a household's energy needs, Gambarota claims.
"Most wind turbines are huge and require technology equivalent to building an airplane or a submarine," Gambarota says. "I wanted to create something that can easily be mass-produced, easily maintained and works in (lower) wind conditions."
Gambarota and his partners are hoping to ride the "clean technology" wave. Alternative energy development -- be it from hydrogen, renewable mixture of gasoline distilled with fermented grains or solar power -- is suddenly creating buzz among entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.
Alternative energy has become the hottest technology ticket in the Silicon Valley tech industries of the United States. Spurred by oil prices that reached $77 a barrel last summer and a call from U.S. President George W. Bush to decrease the "oil addiction" of the world's largest economy, funding for clean technology firms increased 266 percent last year, raising $300 million in the third quarter alone, according to the Silicon Valley Index, published by the non-profit group Joint Venture.
Legendary venture capitalists such as Vinod Khosla, who backed Sun Microsystems and Juniper Networks, is investing heavily in alternative energy. In a recent interview with Reuters, he said the risks of investing in biofuels "is no different than semiconductors."
According to The Associated Press, ConocoPhillips -- the third largest oil company in the United States -- plans to increase alternative energy research such as ethanol, bio-diesel and other cleaner burning fuels by 60 percent this year. The company is keeping pace with competitors such as Chevron Corp., which purchase a 22 percent stake in Galveston Bay biodiesel last year.
Marathon Oil Corp. is talking about a joint venture to make ethanol with grain processor Andersons Inc., and BP PLC and DuPont have teamed up to research a new alternative fuel called biobutanol, which can be produced from fermenting biomass -- much like compost -- as well as petroleum.
Gambarota: Thinking small the key
In Hong Kong, Gambarota is thinking big by thinking small. Research done by his company, Motorwave, shows that remote communities in South Pacific islands that invested in large wind turbines usually abandoned the technology after three years.
"Why? The turbines would require repair from (a) manufacturer who would take two or three weeks to fly in," he says. "It's a pragmatic problem -- you can't go a few weeks without power, so they just go back to gas-powered generators."
Gambarota's design uses eight 25-centimeter propellers on a single turbine that hooks to a generator. Like the toy Legos, the props can be linked up to create higher and higher power yields. The pieces are small enough to be mass-produced by plastic mould injection, and the engine used is already readily available on the market.
"It's simple enough people can repair it themselves," he says. While conventional turbines need wind speeds of 10-meters-per-second to operate, his turbine can generate power with wind levels as low as two-meters-per-second.
The selling price of the units -- which so far have been contracted to be installed at a World Wildlife Federation office and a Hong Kong seaside school -- starts at $150.
"Renewable energy (products) are going through the roof, so we're hoping this is a product that will appeal to people everywhere, be it in rural or urban environments," he says.
For CNN
Adjust font size:
HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Lucien Gambarota sees energy everywhere.
The 49-year-old Italian inventor -- whose day job for years has been creating toys and connecting Chinese manufacturers with European companies -- decided to get into the energy business when he saw his electricity bills triple during the long, hot summers in subtropical Hong Kong, where he is based.
"Suddenly I'm paying (US$1,000) a month for electric bills, and I thought, 'This is really crazy'," he says. "Hong Kong is surrounded by natural energy --the waves of the sea, the wind."
With investors and a business partner, Gambarota formed Motorwave Ltd., an alternative energy producer. The company is working on techniques to harness wave movement to collect energy and extract hydrogen for fuel cells and tapping into the sweat of treadmill runners at a local gym to generate electricity.
The company's latest creation, developed in conjunction with the University of Hong Kong, is a micro-wind turbine: a device small enough to be placed on rooftops or apartment balconies yet able to generate as much as 40 percent of a household's energy needs, Gambarota claims.
"Most wind turbines are huge and require technology equivalent to building an airplane or a submarine," Gambarota says. "I wanted to create something that can easily be mass-produced, easily maintained and works in (lower) wind conditions."
Gambarota and his partners are hoping to ride the "clean technology" wave. Alternative energy development -- be it from hydrogen, renewable mixture of gasoline distilled with fermented grains or solar power -- is suddenly creating buzz among entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.
Alternative energy has become the hottest technology ticket in the Silicon Valley tech industries of the United States. Spurred by oil prices that reached $77 a barrel last summer and a call from U.S. President George W. Bush to decrease the "oil addiction" of the world's largest economy, funding for clean technology firms increased 266 percent last year, raising $300 million in the third quarter alone, according to the Silicon Valley Index, published by the non-profit group Joint Venture.
Legendary venture capitalists such as Vinod Khosla, who backed Sun Microsystems and Juniper Networks, is investing heavily in alternative energy. In a recent interview with Reuters, he said the risks of investing in biofuels "is no different than semiconductors."
According to The Associated Press, ConocoPhillips -- the third largest oil company in the United States -- plans to increase alternative energy research such as ethanol, bio-diesel and other cleaner burning fuels by 60 percent this year. The company is keeping pace with competitors such as Chevron Corp., which purchase a 22 percent stake in Galveston Bay biodiesel last year.
Marathon Oil Corp. is talking about a joint venture to make ethanol with grain processor Andersons Inc., and BP PLC and DuPont have teamed up to research a new alternative fuel called biobutanol, which can be produced from fermenting biomass -- much like compost -- as well as petroleum.
Gambarota: Thinking small the key
In Hong Kong, Gambarota is thinking big by thinking small. Research done by his company, Motorwave, shows that remote communities in South Pacific islands that invested in large wind turbines usually abandoned the technology after three years.
"Why? The turbines would require repair from (a) manufacturer who would take two or three weeks to fly in," he says. "It's a pragmatic problem -- you can't go a few weeks without power, so they just go back to gas-powered generators."
Gambarota's design uses eight 25-centimeter propellers on a single turbine that hooks to a generator. Like the toy Legos, the props can be linked up to create higher and higher power yields. The pieces are small enough to be mass-produced by plastic mould injection, and the engine used is already readily available on the market.
"It's simple enough people can repair it themselves," he says. While conventional turbines need wind speeds of 10-meters-per-second to operate, his turbine can generate power with wind levels as low as two-meters-per-second.
The selling price of the units -- which so far have been contracted to be installed at a World Wildlife Federation office and a Hong Kong seaside school -- starts at $150.
"Renewable energy (products) are going through the roof, so we're hoping this is a product that will appeal to people everywhere, be it in rural or urban environments," he says.
TECHNOLOGY
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Brendan Burke's cell phone was beeping within minutes of the start of his wife's marathon in San Diego. A text message arrived with her latest time as she crossed the six timing mats around the course.
It didn't matter that he was across the country at home in New Jersey.
Pushing to make the 26.2-mile races more friendly to fans and runners alike, marathon officials are increasingly offering free online tools to help spectators and loved ones back home track runners along courses that can span entire cities.
"At each point I could see what her time was and I would figure out her pace to see how she was feeling," Burke, 33, said of his wife's debut marathon in 2005. "It really gave me a sense that I was there running with her."
The systems aren't flawless, but they do help fans monitor runners via a Web site, a cell phone text message or e-mail.
No longer must family and friends take their best guesses and wait. And wait. And wait.
During the April 16 Boston Marathon, for instance, the curious can use their computers to check on the progress of up to five runners at a time. Last year, 10,232 Boston marathon runners, or about half, signed up for alerts, up from 9,836 in 2005.
In Chicago, meanwhile, fans can stop by participating Starbucks coffeehouses along the course and ask marathon volunteers with laptops to look up runners on the spot.
Runners are provided with radio-frequency identification chips that attach to shoelaces. As they cross large rubber mats along the course, a radio transmitter inside the chip sends a unique ID number to an antenna, which routes the information to a central database.
From there, depending on which options a runner has chosen, the information is sent to the cell phone or e-mail address on file. Elapsed time: two to four seconds.
Some races put restrictions on who can receive alerts but not on tracking runners online.
As Nadine Valco ran through the streets of New York last fall, her fan base followed her progress closely at home in Columbus, Ohio.
"My friends and family and co-workers were really encouraging with my training, but obviously with the expense and time of getting to New York, they couldn't be there," said Valco, who has run seven marathons. "But they could say, 'Cool, there she is at 5K."'
New York started using the chips seven years ago to track its runners for timing and online viewing of an athlete's splits. Today, transmitters send automatic updates to the address of your choice -- whether on a computer, cell phone or BlackBerry -- from 11 points along the course.
"We need to make our events as attractive, as exciting as possible to continue to meet the demands of the marketplace," said Richard Finn, New York City Marathon spokesman. "You've always got to keep on freshening up your event."
A series of triathlons sponsored by consulting firm Accenture sends automated voice updates from several points to spectators signed up for alerts. Last year, the marathon in Green Bay, Wisconsin, posted online splits for runners every mile.
One of the most tech-savvy races is the Houston Marathon, which started an alert system in 2001 and has since added an online map of a runner's progress, an elaborate post-race summary of a runner's results and video clips searchable by a runner's name.
Houston's offerings -- free with the $75 entry fee -- benefit participants while pleasing corporate sponsors because of high traffic on the marathon's Web site, spokesman Steven Karpas said.
The systems aren't foolproof. Running her first marathon in New York last year, Lara Kail registered her own e-mail address, her brother's cell phone and her aunt and uncle's e-mail.
Kail, 30, got the correct updates which she wanted for posterity's sake. But her brother received just one blank message. Her aunt and uncle: nothing.
"It was a little disappointing," the New York market researcher said. "Lucky for me, I had a good day, but what would have happened if I'd fallen way off my target and they had no clue where I was on the course?"
Keeping track of a runner can also be costly, a factor as race fees for some marathons top $100. Systems can cost $1 to $2 per runner -- charged as part of the entry fee -- or up to $20,000 for a marathon with 10,000 competitors.
Major vendors include chip company ChampionChip, of Nijmegen, Holland, and timing companies Active.com of San Diego and Mika Timing of Cologne, Germany.
After introducing text messaging in 2005, the San Diego and Nashville marathons didn't offer any alerts or online tracking last year because of the expense.
This year, both races plan an experiment with real-time tracking of phone-carrying runners via Global Positioning Satellite technology, and they may reintroduce traditional alerts and online tracking after turning to sponsors for help.
The updating adds a space-age twist to an event that legend dates to ancient Greece. The modern race started at the reborn Olympics in Athens in 1896, and early marathons consisted of a few dozen runners at best.
Today's larger races can feature 30,000 or more athletes, all having fans who want results quickly if not instantaneously.
Computer chips were introduced in the mid-1990s to replace results manually compiled from tags ripped from runners as they finished. They also serve as checkpoints as race directors hope to avoid fiascos like the 1980 Boston Marathon, where Rosie Ruiz was crowned female champion after jumping into the race less than a mile from the finish.
The biggest challenge is managing a complex system of electronics within a short amount of time, said Harald Mika, founder of Mika Timing, which times Chicago and about 200 other races a year.
"If you do have a problem, you'd better fix it within two minutes," he said.
In some cases, rubber mats aren't placed correctly; in other instances, a timing company doesn't send the information properly. Sometimes a phone company or e-mail service blocks messages as spam, although race officials try to notify companies that tens of thousands of e-mails may be coming on race day.
While the systems can misfire, sending blank or delayed messages, they can also work too well -- coldly updating friends with the details of a poor race.
That's a lesson Valco learned as stomach cramps slowed her time in New York. The chip, she realized, added insult to injury.
"Even while on the New York course I was thinking, 'Everyone in Columbus knows it just wasn't the race I had hoped it would be,"' she said.
It didn't matter that he was across the country at home in New Jersey.
Pushing to make the 26.2-mile races more friendly to fans and runners alike, marathon officials are increasingly offering free online tools to help spectators and loved ones back home track runners along courses that can span entire cities.
"At each point I could see what her time was and I would figure out her pace to see how she was feeling," Burke, 33, said of his wife's debut marathon in 2005. "It really gave me a sense that I was there running with her."
The systems aren't flawless, but they do help fans monitor runners via a Web site, a cell phone text message or e-mail.
No longer must family and friends take their best guesses and wait. And wait. And wait.
During the April 16 Boston Marathon, for instance, the curious can use their computers to check on the progress of up to five runners at a time. Last year, 10,232 Boston marathon runners, or about half, signed up for alerts, up from 9,836 in 2005.
In Chicago, meanwhile, fans can stop by participating Starbucks coffeehouses along the course and ask marathon volunteers with laptops to look up runners on the spot.
Runners are provided with radio-frequency identification chips that attach to shoelaces. As they cross large rubber mats along the course, a radio transmitter inside the chip sends a unique ID number to an antenna, which routes the information to a central database.
From there, depending on which options a runner has chosen, the information is sent to the cell phone or e-mail address on file. Elapsed time: two to four seconds.
Some races put restrictions on who can receive alerts but not on tracking runners online.
As Nadine Valco ran through the streets of New York last fall, her fan base followed her progress closely at home in Columbus, Ohio.
"My friends and family and co-workers were really encouraging with my training, but obviously with the expense and time of getting to New York, they couldn't be there," said Valco, who has run seven marathons. "But they could say, 'Cool, there she is at 5K."'
New York started using the chips seven years ago to track its runners for timing and online viewing of an athlete's splits. Today, transmitters send automatic updates to the address of your choice -- whether on a computer, cell phone or BlackBerry -- from 11 points along the course.
"We need to make our events as attractive, as exciting as possible to continue to meet the demands of the marketplace," said Richard Finn, New York City Marathon spokesman. "You've always got to keep on freshening up your event."
A series of triathlons sponsored by consulting firm Accenture sends automated voice updates from several points to spectators signed up for alerts. Last year, the marathon in Green Bay, Wisconsin, posted online splits for runners every mile.
One of the most tech-savvy races is the Houston Marathon, which started an alert system in 2001 and has since added an online map of a runner's progress, an elaborate post-race summary of a runner's results and video clips searchable by a runner's name.
Houston's offerings -- free with the $75 entry fee -- benefit participants while pleasing corporate sponsors because of high traffic on the marathon's Web site, spokesman Steven Karpas said.
The systems aren't foolproof. Running her first marathon in New York last year, Lara Kail registered her own e-mail address, her brother's cell phone and her aunt and uncle's e-mail.
Kail, 30, got the correct updates which she wanted for posterity's sake. But her brother received just one blank message. Her aunt and uncle: nothing.
"It was a little disappointing," the New York market researcher said. "Lucky for me, I had a good day, but what would have happened if I'd fallen way off my target and they had no clue where I was on the course?"
Keeping track of a runner can also be costly, a factor as race fees for some marathons top $100. Systems can cost $1 to $2 per runner -- charged as part of the entry fee -- or up to $20,000 for a marathon with 10,000 competitors.
Major vendors include chip company ChampionChip, of Nijmegen, Holland, and timing companies Active.com of San Diego and Mika Timing of Cologne, Germany.
After introducing text messaging in 2005, the San Diego and Nashville marathons didn't offer any alerts or online tracking last year because of the expense.
This year, both races plan an experiment with real-time tracking of phone-carrying runners via Global Positioning Satellite technology, and they may reintroduce traditional alerts and online tracking after turning to sponsors for help.
The updating adds a space-age twist to an event that legend dates to ancient Greece. The modern race started at the reborn Olympics in Athens in 1896, and early marathons consisted of a few dozen runners at best.
Today's larger races can feature 30,000 or more athletes, all having fans who want results quickly if not instantaneously.
Computer chips were introduced in the mid-1990s to replace results manually compiled from tags ripped from runners as they finished. They also serve as checkpoints as race directors hope to avoid fiascos like the 1980 Boston Marathon, where Rosie Ruiz was crowned female champion after jumping into the race less than a mile from the finish.
The biggest challenge is managing a complex system of electronics within a short amount of time, said Harald Mika, founder of Mika Timing, which times Chicago and about 200 other races a year.
"If you do have a problem, you'd better fix it within two minutes," he said.
In some cases, rubber mats aren't placed correctly; in other instances, a timing company doesn't send the information properly. Sometimes a phone company or e-mail service blocks messages as spam, although race officials try to notify companies that tens of thousands of e-mails may be coming on race day.
While the systems can misfire, sending blank or delayed messages, they can also work too well -- coldly updating friends with the details of a poor race.
That's a lesson Valco learned as stomach cramps slowed her time in New York. The chip, she realized, added insult to injury.
"Even while on the New York course I was thinking, 'Everyone in Columbus knows it just wasn't the race I had hoped it would be,"' she said.
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