Videos posted show two different experiments, both of which accurately picked up the typed text. The first shows a white Logitech keyboard with a PS/2 connector that was attached to a laptop for power. It was monitored with a simple one-meter wire cable about a meter away. After typing "trust no one" on the keyboard, the same phrase is returned on the researchers' monitoring equipment. In a second video, a larger antenna picked up keystrokes through an office wall. Various experiments showed they could monitor keystrokes from as far away as 20 meters.

Vuagnoux and Pasini have a paper in peer review detailing the technique. It will be released soon at an upcoming conference.

-Jeremy Kirk

GM Bets on Visual Modeling Tech

General Motors (GM), facing possible bankruptcy, has been pursuing efficiencies on the desktop with visual modeling technology that simulates an IT user's experience of a software application before it is deployed. The technology will speed new tool development, cut project costs and increase adoption of IT applications by allowing internal users to weigh in during development, according to GM's Chief Systems and Technology Officer Fred Killeen.

"It's a great way to avoid errors, figure out costs and behaviors," says Gartner analyst Jim Sinur. In the current economic environment, IT is under cost pressures like everyone else. And GM itself is fighting for its life after losing billions of dollars in 2008. At press time, the automaker was seeking federal help to stay afloat.Sinur says that new process technologies allow for the simulation of a process to detect issues early on. Older process technologies required a complete development cycle before finding the issues. "You also had to spend a lot more time modeling before you had a chance to try it out," he says. Visual models also foster collaboration by expediting the ability for far-flung groups to work together, says Marc Halpern, research director in manufacturing advisory services for Gartner.

GM is using visualization software from iRise and a rapid prototyping process developed by Capgemini. The automaker has already implemented a number of business applications built from this modeling process for its manufacturing, human resources and dealer-facing systems. Visual modeling reduced project duration, on average, by 10 percent, according to GM. "We use it early on in any project where we are doing sessions with business customers about how they want the applications to behave and look," says Killeen.

Killeen plans to incorporate IT visual modeling into all of GM's customer-facing applications. "The sooner you deploy, the sooner you get business benefits," he says. "It's less about the development costs and more about the speed to completion."