Psychology researchers from Glasgow University have just announced that they’ve developed a facial recognition algorithm that’s 100% accurate in their testing. The technique essentially averages 20 photos into one composite but is able to disregard confounding variables like age, lighting, expression and camera equipment used. (I mean, you can see what they did to poor John Travolta.)
The FBI is planning to spend $US1 billion on the world’s largest biometric database. The database will be used to create a big brother state, in which you will ultimately have little autonomy assist the FBI’s efforts in catching the bad guys. Apparently, compilation of digital images, including mug shots, fingerprints and palm patterns have already begun.
Soon, pilots from all airlines flying into Israeli airspace will have to enter a numbered sequence to prove they are not terrorist hijackers. The secret code will be generated by the Security Code System, designed by Elbit Systems complete with a credit-card-sized keypad. Authorised pilots everywhere will eventually be issued keypads, 10,000 in all. For security reasons, the Israeli government won’t go into detail about what pilots are supposed to do, exactly. But they did mention what would happen when pilots failed to do it: More »
For those times when you listen to the radio (do people still listen to the radio?) and you can’t identify a song [do people still listen to songs?]there’s the $19.95 MusicMarker. Press the button to activate the mic while the elusive song is playing, and the MusicMarker will record a snippet. When you get home, plug the unit in via USB and it will identify the track for you. The catch?
We’re betting on loads of bloatware. There’s no word on the site about exactly what service is being used to identify the tracks, and there is an option to be pointed to an MP3 or CD of the song. We have flashy visions of ads, annoying voices selling us stuff and maybe even a moose that appears on our desktop who occasionally flashes us. Hmm…a promising device after all? ”
