Specifications

20 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007
FRONTSIDE
Pinching Wi-Fi Poachers
Police are arresting those who connect to unsecured wireless networks.
But is it really a crime to surf for free?
Piggybacking on your neighbors Wi-Fi connec-
tion may seem like a victimless crime unworthy
of punishment, but some officials beg to differ. In
late August, the BBC reported that London police
arrested a 39-year-old man for connecting to an
unsecured Wi-Fi network while standing outside
the network owner’s home. In the U.K., clear provi-
sions such as the Communications Act 2003 and the
Computer Misuse Act ban this practice. But here in
the States, the laws are vaguer.
The closest the U.S. comes to outlawing Wi-Fi
mooching is Title 18, Section 1030 of the U.S. Code,
which prohibits “unauthorized access.” According
to Tracy Mitrano, director of information technol-
ogy policy at Cornell University, there are three
types of laws that courts use to try to prosecute Wi-
Fi fi lchers: those dealing with trespassing, hacking,
and creating counterfeit cable boxes.
“It’s not a perfect fit,” Mitrano says. “Trespass
law was based on physical space. I don’t think any of
them successfully address the issue.”
Often, state and local regulations are prosecuted
in vastly different ways. In 2005, a Florida man was
charged with a third-class felony for lurking outside
a Tampa house with his laptop. And two men, one
in Alaska and one in Michigan, were handed down
fines for accessing free Wi-Fi hot spots from the
street, instead of inside the walls of the business.
In 2006, the legislature of Westchester County,
on the outskirts of New York City, became the fi rst
in the country to pass a law requiring businesses
to secure their internal wireless networks. County
Board Chair Bill Ryan says that the measure was put
into place to protect both the data of local businesses
and the personal information of employees.
Mitrano, like many others, feels the responsibil-
ity lies with users to secure their home or business
networks. She warns against hindering wireless
technology’s progress through overlegislation.
“Thank goodness we don’t live in a country
where we are required to process all of our technol-
ogy through federal and state governments—where
it is not released until lawmakers are shown every
intended and unintended use to establish a legal
framework,” she says. “We would throw ourselves
back into the Stone Age if we did that.”—Erik Rhey
Q: What kind of pregame prepa-
ration is required to create the
“1st & Ten” line?
A: We typically have one or two
tr
ained operators at each venue
setting up the day before a game.
The operators “teach” the main
computers in the TV trucks what
the football fi eld looks like from
each game camera. They also
set up special minicomputers
on each camera, which send pan,
tilt, and zoom [PTZ] information
down to the main computers. They can
combine this PTZ data with a 3D model of
the football fi eld to create a very accurate
calculation of what the yellow line should
look like from each camera angle.
Q: How is the
line implement
ed
during the game
itself?
A: There is one
main in-
game
operator who
updates the loca-
tion of the line
each time a first-
down conver-
sion is made and
who also builds
the chroma key. Building the chroma key
is the magic step that creates the illusion
of players walking over the yellow line.
Basically, we select which colors the yel-
low line should be drawn on. We choose
Q & A: FELICIA YUE, SPORTVISION
Behind the First-Down Line
Felicia Yue, product manager for Sportvision—the company that created such
TV sports enhancements as the NFL’s virtual  rst-down line—talks about the
tech that goes into bringing the big game to your living room.
all the shades of green that are in the grass
and exclude all other colors, such as those
of the uniforms, helmets, and skin tones.
Q: Are there particular conditions that are
diffi
cult to work with?
A: Rainy, snowy, muddy fields are diffi-
cult t
o chroma-key, as are some lighting
conditions. Also, the Green Bay Packers
uniforms can be a similar shade of green
to the grass, so choosing the right shades
of green to draw the line on while exclud-
ing the greens in the uniforms becomes a
challenge.
Q: Is American football better suited than
other sports t
o using technology?
A: Yes. American football has lots of pre-
dictable br
eaks in the action, as well as
many commercial breaks. Unless there’s
a hurry-up offense in effect, you typically
get at least 30 seconds between plays to
update your graphics and settings. Other
sports like soccer are more difficult to
incorporate virtual graphics into because
the stoppages in the game action are far
less predictable.—Anton Galang
WEIRD
RESEARCH
PROJECTS
What lurks
behind the walls
of academia.
1. University
College London
Neuroscientist Hen-
rik Ehrsson is testing
virtual simulation of
an OBE (out-of-body
experience) using
head-mounted video
displays.
2. Carnegie
Mellon
The Enter-
tainment Tech-
nology Center is
working on “live
virtual computer-
generated robotic
theatre puppetry” to
create “Virpets” (or
virtual puppets).
3. Stanford Uni-
versity
The Rope
Manipulation Plan-
ning project involves
“design motion
planning to manipu-
late a rope” (that is,
teaching robots how
to tie knots).