Facial Recognition Tech for Access Management ‘100% Effective’

I.D., PLEASE

Vancouver, B.C.-based Active Witness Corp. has developed a visitor access management system for high-security facilities that it reports is 100 percent effective at making sure each person who goes through a door is supposed to be there. Most facial recognition systems scan a face, then search a database to find the person closest to that, which can lead to incorrect identification. Active Witness’ SIMA system uses multifactor access control: When it scans a face, it sends the person’s mobile device a QR code they then scan in so the system can match the ID.
Source: Active Witness

7,000

That’s the number of high-definition movies you could download in one second with Internet speeds tested in July at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology in Japan. By upgrading every part of a fiber line, scientists managed to move data at 319TBps, almost double the previous test in 2020.
Source: Engadget

COLD FEET

Anyone who was planning to get married via Zoom in New York should make other plans. In June, the governor’s office lifted an executive order that made virtual weddings legal during COVID-related lockdown, and the state reverted to its law that a couple “must state in the presence of an authorized public official or authorized member of the clergy and at least one other witness that each takes the other as his or her spouse.”
Source: The Verge

A SNAIL TALE

Four years ago, researchers from the University of Michigan found a high-tech solution to a small-animal problem. The carnivorous rosy wolf snail was involved in the extinctions of up to 134 snail species across the world — except one. In the valleys of Tahiti, the tiny Partula hyalina managed to survive the rosy wolf’s trail of terror. But how? The scientists were guessing that the partula hyalina’s pale-colored shell enabled it to spend more time in sunlight than most other land snail species that would simply dry up in the sun. To test the theory, researchers partnered with an engineering lab that had designed the world’s smallest battery-free computer, just slightly bigger than an aphid. They used sensors to track sunlight in snail habitats, and affixed the computers to the shells of rosy wolf snails in Tahiti to track their movements. The result was a confirmation of the theory: The tiny partula hyalina skirted extinction by staying in areas that would prove lethal to its predator.
Source: New York Times