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1. Initial transient stage of pin-to-pin nanosecond repetitively pulsed discharges in air

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0093794  

   Wang, Xingxing; Patel, Adam; Shashurin, Alexey (July 2022, Journal of Applied Physics)

   In this work, evolution of parameters of nanosecond repetitively pulsed (NRP) discharges in pin-to-pin configuration in air was studied during the transient stage of initial 20 discharge pulses. Gas and plasma parameters in the discharge gap were measured using coherent microwave scattering, optical emission spectroscopy, and laser Rayleigh scattering for NRP discharges at repetition frequencies of 1, 10, and 100 kHz. Memory effects (when perturbations induced by the previous discharge pulse would not decay fully until the subsequent pulse) were detected for the repetition frequencies of 10 and 100 kHz. For 10 kHz NRP discharge, the discharge parameters experienced significant change after the first pulse and continued to substantially fluctuate between subsequent pulses due to rapid evolution of gas density and temperature during the 100  μs inter-pulse time caused by intense redistribution of the flow field in the gap on that time scale. For 100 kHz NRP discharge, the discharge pulse parameters reached a new steady-state at about five pulses after initiation. This new steady-state was associated with well-reproducible parameters between the discharge pulses and substantial reduction in breakdown voltage, discharge pulse energy, and electron number density in comparison to the first discharge pulse. For repetition frequencies 1–100 kHz considered in this work, the memory effects can be likely attributed to the reduction in gas number density and increase in the gas temperature that cannot fully recover to ambient conditions before subsequent discharge pulses. 

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2. We Can Hear Your PIN Drop: An Acoustic Side-Channel Attack on ATM PIN Pads

   Kiran Balagani, Matteo Cardaioli (September 2022, ESORICS 2022)

   Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) are the most common user authentication method for in-person banking transactions at ATMs. The US Federal Reserve reported that, in 2018, PINs secured 31.4 billion transactions in the US, with an overall worth of US$ 1.19 trillion. One well-known attack type involves the use of cameras to spy on the ATM PIN pad during PIN entry. Countermeasures include covering the PIN pad with a shield or with the other hand while typing. Although this protects PINs from visual attacks, acoustic emanations from the PIN pad itself open the door for another attack type. In this paper, we show the feasibility of an acoustic side-channel attack (called PinDrop) to reconstruct PINs by profiling acoustic signatures of individual keys of a PIN pad. We demonstrate the practicality of PinDrop via two sets of data collection experiments involving two commercially available metal PIN pad models and 58 participants who entered a total of 5,800 5-digit PINs. We simulated two realistic attack scenarios: (1) a microphone placed near the ATM (0.3 m away) and (2) a real-time attacker (with a microphone) standing in the queue at a common courtesy distance of 2 m. In the former case, we show that PinDrop recovers 96% of 4-digit, and up to 94% of 5-digits, PINs. Whereas, at 2 m away, it recovers up to 57% of 4-digit, and up to 39% of 5-digit PINs in three attempts. We believe that these results are both 

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3. Non-formality in PIN(2)-monopole Floer homology

   https://doi.org/10.4171/QT/151  

   Lin, Francesco (January 2021, Quantum Topology)

   null (Ed.)
4. LightDefender: Protecting PIN Input using Ambient Light Sensor

   https://doi.org/10.1109/PerCom45495.2020.9127361  

   Shang, J; Wu, J (March 2020, Proc. of the 18th IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom 2020))
5. Soft Growing Pin for High-Extension Shape-Changing Displays

   https://doi.org/10.1109/RoboSoft60065.2024.10522001  

   Valdivia, Antonio Alvarez; Rezqalla, Mohammad A; Swann, Sarah E; Blumenschein, Laura H (April 2024, IEEE)

   Regular user interface screens can display dense and detailed information to human users but miss out on providing somatosensory stimuli that take full advantage of human spatial cognition. Therefore, the development of new haptic displays can strengthen human-machine communication by augmenting visual communication with tactile stimulation needed to transform information from digital to spatial/physical environments. Shape-changing interfaces, such as pin arrays and robotic surfaces, are one method for providing this spatial dimension of feedback; however, these displays are often either limited in maximum extension or require bulky mechanical components. In this paper, we present a compact pneumatically actuated soft growing pin for inflatable haptic interfaces. Each pin consists of a rigid, air-tight chamber, an inflatable fabric pin, and a passive spring-actuated reel mechanism. The device behavior was experimentally characterized, showing extension to 18.5 cm with relatively low pressure input (1.75 psi, 12.01 kPa), and the behavior was compared to the mathematical model of soft growing robots. The results showed that the extension of the soft pin can be accurately modeled and controlled using pressure as input. Finally, we demonstrate the feasibility of implementing individually actuated soft growing pins to create an inflatable haptic surface. 

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