How facial recognition could send you to the big house
Police in New York City have experimented with facial recognition technology and used pictures of famous people, who crime suspects allegedly resemble, to search a database of faces. One suspect was said to resemble Woody Harrelson, so police scan a photo of the actor to try to find their man. Gizmodo
dis-rup-shun: If you have a face that resembles the profile of criminals, gang members and parking meter violators, you may find yourself popular among local law enforcement. Technology is brilliant until it isn’t and this is a reminder of the importance of government and regulations. By its nature, government regulations will always trail emerging technologies, and many will get caught in the gap. For aspiring attorneys, the field of digital privacy is a growth industry.
Flying jet taxis are targeted for mass markets, not just the affluent
Munich based Ilium is developing a rechargeable flying taxi that seats 5 and can be hailed through an app. The prototyple, unveiled this week, is the precursor to the service which plans to be commercially available in major cities by 2025. CNN
dis-rup-shun: Before you snicker at the thought of a flying taxi, be aware that Ilium’s competitors are Uber (in a partnership with NASA), Boeing and Rolls Royce. Ilium’s backers include a founder of Skype and giant Chinese tech leader, Tencent. Like the current space race competitors, these companies are serious.
On the bleeding edge with the first real 5G network for real people
CNet‘s Jessica Dolcourt is on the front lines, testing Verizon’s just operational 5G network with Samsung’s just released 5G compatible Galaxy S10. Verizon has debuted its 5G network in Chicago and it has quite a few rough edges to smooth, but real 5G is on the way.
dis-rup-shun: Jessica says it well: “5G data speeds represent a profound shift for the industry, promising exponentially faster download speeds on your phone, which can make AR and new camera features come to life. The ultrafast data transfer also paves the way for next-generation capabilities including remote surgery, connected security cameras and cars and buses that talk to each other on the road to reduce accidents and help keep lanes clear. Carriers that can build out the most robust networks first believe they’ll have an advantage over rivals for signing on new subscribers.”
Too good to be made up: Nest and Google
As the market continues to question what the elimination of the “Works with Nest” program means, we learn owners of Nest products need to convert their Nest accounts to Google accounts. Gizmodo
dis-rup-shun: Let’s just leave the commentary to qwedswa, author of a comment on the article:
‘I said to my wife, since we’ve already got Alexa recording everything we say, we might as well upgrade our completely horrible “smart” thermostats to the Nest ones, because our electric company is giving discounts. At least Google won’t be recording everything we say as well as Amazon.
The very next day after they are installed: Google acquires Nest!
I think Alexa told on me.’