Poachers typically hunt at night, which is why drone-mounted infrared cameras are being used to spot them. The problem is, it can be difficult to tell humans from animals in the videos. Scientists from USC are making the job easier, using artificial intelligence.
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Smartphones are everywhere these days, packed with apps designed to make everyday life plain easier. Finland's Trafi is looking to tap into this ubiquitous nature so that drivers no longer need to carry a plastic driving permit, instead using a digital version accessed from within an app.
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Even if some shady character were to get hold of your smartphone, it wouldn't do them much good if they didn't know your PIN … right? Well, researchers have created a system that correctly guesses a phone's PIN, based solely on information provided by its sensors.
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Sorry, but your smartphone's camera isn't perfect. Its sensor contains flaws, which show up in its photos as imperfections known as photo-response non-uniformity (PRNU). Because each phone has its own unique PRNU pattern, scientists have proposed that it could be used as a form of identification.
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When you're studying wildlife, it's important to have a way of differentiating between individual animals. With that in mind, scientists have discovered that bats can be told apart via their unique "wing prints."
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That person who's waiting behind you while you're using an ATM … are they peeking at the keypad as you enter your PIN? Well, even if they are, a new technology could thwart them – it displays the number keys in a different arrangement, depending on the distance from which it's being viewed.
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Scientists may soon have a new tool to work with, when it comes to determining the age of deceased children based on their remains. Researchers have found that the skull's frontal sinus undergoes distinct changes throughout childhood, and those changes can be matched up to approximate ages.
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Marine biologists currently have to manually compare fin photos in order to see which great white shark is which. Wouldn't it be easier if there was fin-pattern-matching software, like there is for fingerprints? Well, it has been attempted before, and now there's a new effort underway.
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Scientists have come up with a method that they are hailing as a game-changer for forensics, using analysis of hair samples to detect unique patterns of proteins that can identify humans up to 250 years after being left behind.
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Smartglasses aren't unlike smartphones, in that you don't want just anyone picking up yours and using it. Conventional passwords are one way to go, but scientists have developed an alternative that doesn't involve memorizing anything – you do, however, have to let the glasses buzz your skull.
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