UC San Francisco Project Looks to Biometric Data to Track COVID-19 Spread
A new project by UC San Francisco (UCSF) is asking for volunteers to share their biometric data in an effort to track the spread of…
Articles Written By: Tony Bitzionis
This author has written 135 articles
Future Apple Watch May Get Touch ID for Biometric Authentication
According to a report from Israeli news site The Verifier, a future version of the Apple Watch is set to feature Touch ID for biometric authentication, as well as a few other new features, though we may have to wait until 2021. With the most recent release of the Apple Watch — Series 5 —…
Huami Teams with Chinese Athletics Association on Smart Wearable Devices
Huami has announced a partnership with the Chinese Athletics Association (CAA) in a formal agreement that will see the two sides team up to develop smart wearable devices. “The official partnership will promote the sports spirit and healthy lifestyle to the whole society, which also has a positive impact on building a leading sports nation,” said Yu Hongchen, the…
Apple Patent Describes Biometric Head Mounted Display
A patent filed by Apple with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office details a future Head Mounted Display (HMD) system with interchangeable lenses, and biometric sensors that can identify the wearer. The patent lists a biometric sensor onboard the HMD, which could potentially be used for user authentication. The type of biometric sensor is not…
Proxy to Expand Identity Signal Solution Following $42M Series B Round
San Francisco-based Proxy has announced it has raised $42 million in a Series B funding round led by Scale Venture Partners, and with participation from existing investors Kleiner Perkins and Y Combinator. Proxy aims to use the financing to fuel a rapid expansion of its identity signal solution, while growing its international footprint across Asia,…
Apple Releases ARKit 3.5 with Lidar Support
Apple has released an updated version of ARKit, its augmented reality (AR) development tool, to now support the new lidar sensor found in the upcoming 2020 iPad Pro. ARKit 3.5 features a new Scene Geometry API that uses lidar’s capabilities — the measuring of distances using pulsed laser light — to create a 3D map…
OPPO Launches Reno3 Pro in Middle East with 64MP Camera, Facial Recognition
Chinese tech company OPPO has announced the launch of its Reno3 Series of smartphones in the Middle East, featuring a 64MP camera and facial recognition for biometric security. “We are extremely excited to bring Reno3 Series to the Middle East market,” said OPPO President, Middle East and Africa Ethan Xue. “Many cutting-edge imaging technologies and design techniques…
Frost & Sullivan Report: Biometrics Market Growth Boosted by Rise of IoT
Research and consulting firm Frost and Sullivan has released a new report on the global biometrics market, predicting it will grow from $18.78 billion today to $45.98 billion by the year 2024. The report highlights the importance of the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and smartphone usage — along with the increasing viability…
Google Fixes Biometric Flaw in Latest Android Developer Preview Release
Google has fixed what has been termed by many to be a major flaw in its new Face Unlock biometric authentication system that was released with the Pixel 4 late last year. In the latest release of the Android 11 Developer Preview 2 (DP2), the “require eyes to be open” feature is live, meaning users…
Google Teams Open-Source Object Detection Tool
Members from the Google Brain and Google AI teams have announced they have open-sourced EfficientDet, an AI-powered tool that allows for state-of-the-art object detection with more efficient use of compute power. The next generation version of EfficientNet, EfficientDet was first detailed in a paper published last fall by Google engineers Mingxing Tan, Ruoming Pang, and…
New Apple Products Include iPad Pro with Lidar Scanner
Apple has unveiled some new products including an update to its entry-level MacBook Air laptop, and a new iPad Pro that comes equipped with a lidar scanner, which would bolster the popular tablet’s augmented reality capabilities. The 3D depth-sensing lidar — which stands for Light Detection and Ranging — scanner uses pulsed laser light to…
Apple Files Patent to Protect Privacy by Tracking User’s Gaze
Tech giant Apple has recently filed a patent for a technology that protects the user’s privacy by tracking their gaze. The tech is referred to in the patent as “Gaze-dependent display encryption”, and relies on facial recognition to determine if the device owner is the one looking at the screen, and eye tracking to determine…
Google Details How Soli Radar Tech Works
In a post on its AI blog penned last week, Google explained the technology behind the radar sensors included in last year’s Pixel 4 smartphone. Though the hardware behind what Google calls Project Soli — a 60GHz radar and antenna receivers capable of covering a combined 180-degree field of view — was revealed during the…
New Thermal Imaging Smart Glasses Combine Vuzix and Librestream Tech
Smart glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technology supplier Vuzix has partnered with AR enterprise solution provider Librestream to announce an integrated hands-free thermal imaging smart glasses solution. The solution — a combination of the Vuzix M400 Smart Glasses and Librestream’s Onsight platform — is a potentially vital tool for frontline workers to monitor body temperatures…
Airport Retailer to Implement Amazon’s ‘Just Walk Out’ Payment Tech
Airport hospitality group OTG has announced it will be implementing Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” cashierless payment technology at one of their stores in Newark Liberty Airport. The store — a CIBO Express Gourmet Market — is located in Newark Liberty’s Terminal C, and will allow customers to enter the store by swiping their credit card.…
Redmi Demos In-Display Fingerprint Sensor on LCD Panel
Redmi, a sub-brand of Chinese tech company Xiaomi, has recently shown off a working in-display fingerprint sensor on a Liquid-Crystal Display (LCD) panel, potentially paving the way for the tech to be implemented in lower-cost smartphones. In-display fingerprint sensors have been increasing in popularity in recent months, with many of the world’s major tech companies…
Envision AI Teams Up with Google Glass to Help Visually Impaired Users “See”
Envision AI, the smartphone app that helps visually impaired people “see” the world around them by describing objects to them using artificial intelligence, has announced the debut of Envision Glasses, an AI-powered version of Google Glass that will bring its platform to Google’s wearable device. Envision Glasses are a combination of Google Glass Enterprise Edition…
Get Ready for Australia’s Biometric Online ID Beta Test
Australia’s Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) has said it is expecting that the biometric component of its myGovID program will be ready for a public beta test rollout later this year. “The thing that we’ve been very considered on is the implementation of the biometric features to ensure that the facial verification service operates as expected,”…
LiDAR Specialist Raises $12 Million in Seed Funding
SiLC Technologies Inc, a developer of integrated single-chip frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) LiDAR solutions, has announced it has raised $12 million in seed funding led by Dell Technologies Capital. The money is expected to be used by SiLC to fund its research and development (R&D) department to help with the production of its FMCW…
Senior U.S. Commerce Official at Center of 5G, Huawei Battles Resigns
Earl Comstock, a senior U.S. Commerce Department official who has been a vocal proponent of export restrictions on Chinese tech giant Huawei is resigning, effective Friday, according to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. In a statement on Comstock’s resignation, Ross said that he valued his “wise counsel, his deep policy expertise, his innovative thinking and leadership,”…
