Fingerprint technology beats world's toughest tests

Fingerprint technology beats world's toughest tests
Technology developed by the University of Warwick that can identify partial, distorted, scratched, smudged, or otherwise warped fingerprints in just a few seconds has just scored top marks in the world's two toughest technical fingerprint tests. The technology is also being rapidly taken up by the UK building trade who are delighted to have fingerprint technology which can cope with the often worn and ravaged builders' thumbprints.
Many other fingerprint techniques have tried to identify a few key features on a finger print and laboriously match them against a database of templates.

The University of Warwick researchers consider the entire detailed pattern of each print and transform the topological pattern into a standard co-ordinate system. This allows the researchers to "unwarp" any finger print that has been distorted by smudging, uneven pressure, or other distortion and create a clear digital representation of the fingerprint that can then be mapped on to an "image space" of all other finger prints held on a database. Instead of laboriously comparing a print against each entry in a database any new print scanned by the system is unwarped and over laid onto a virtual "image space" that includes all the fingerprints available to the database. It does not matter whether it's a thousand or a million fingerprints in the database the result comes back in seconds.

The technology has impressed more than just the construction industry. In the past week the technology has been examined by two of the world's most respected technical fingerprint benchmarking tests. Tests by the National Physical Laboratory ranked Warwick Warp's fingerprint Technology best overall for accuracy. A test of 36 finger print technologies by the US's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) ranked Warwick 3rd overall"

Read more at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091026093731.htm

Wi-Fi signals can see through walls

Wi-Fi signals can see through walls
Researchers at the University of Utah, USA, have discovered that variations in signal strengths in wireless networks can be used to "see" movements of people on the other side of walls or doors:

The scientists, Joey Wilson and Neal Patwari, detected movements by measuring the signal strength of the radio waves between the nodes of wireless network devices. The presence of people moving through the field is registered as a change in signal strength. The space is interrogated by many signals that are picked up by many receivers, and this allows a picture of the movement in the space to be built up. The technique is called variance-based radio tomographic imaging.

Wilson and Patwari set up a 34-node network outside a living room in a house to test the system, and were able to detect movements to about three feet through the wall. At present the scientists are only able to detect movements, and are not yet able to generate images, but they are sure this will be possible in the future. They are equally confident they will be able to improve accuracy, even with fewer nodes. They also say that adding GPS to each node would enable it to work out its own location, and this should improve the imaging process.

The researchers expect the system to find application in search and rescue operations, such as finding people trapped under collapsed buildings after earthquakes. The scientists envisage emergency workers using Wi-Fi radio technologies to install a network of sensors around an emergency area to detect the presence of survivors and bodies.

According to Wilson and Patwari, the radio sensors could be deployed around a disaster site by the emergency workers, either by dropping them or throwing or launching them in some way. Each sensor would then form part of a network and begin to transmit information about signal strength measurements across the web of sensors to a base station computer. The computer would correlate the information and determine the likely locations of survivors.

The advantage of this technique over existing systems capable of sensing what is on the other side of a wall is the price, since the nodes in the network are cheap and off-the shelf. The disadvantage of a cheap and simple system is its potential use as a spy tool by nosy neighbors, peeping toms or burglars, and all the privacy and safety issues such uses raise.

Stop Piracy at the source

IR light from behind the cinema screen prevents pirates from recording films at movie theatres

National Institute of Informatics, Japan in co-operation with Sharp, has developed a technique to render any recording unwatchable by flashing pulses of infra-red (IR) light from behind the cinema screen. The pulses pass through tiny holes in the screen originally designed to allow through sound, and cause interference to any video cameras held by members of the audience. The IR light, while invisible to human eyes, is also impossible to filter out without rendering the recording too blurry to watch. The team says best results are achieved at a speed of 10 pulses per second.

Films screened at cinemas are already digitally watermarked to prevent them from being copied digitally, but there has been no way of reliably stopping pirates from recording films using video cameras. The damage caused by bootleg film recordings is estimated at around 3 billion dollars a year, according to the American Film Institute.

Solve 2.5 lac pending cases in 2 days!

MEGA LOK ADALAT
Initiated by Justice T. S. Thakur, Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, this innovation aims to settle maximum number of cases through mutual consensus without following the lengthy judicial process. A two-day Mega Lok Adalat was organized to decrease the huge pendency of cases in the Subordinate Courts, as per the directions of Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice T S Thakur. Done on December 20 and 21, 2008.

The journey to make this experiment a smash hit started some three months before with high court authorities informing their subordinate courts that they would try and clear 2.5 lakh cases in 2 days. They were told to collaborate with various government departments and corporates and set a cut-off limit regarding value. Hence all cases below this amount were given a chance to be heard at the mega lok adalat. Arrangements were made for security to be provided by cops and medical facilities were arranged from the administration, which made it an `event to remember' on Saturday.

Impact:
In Chandigarh: more than 30,000 cases under various Acts were settled on Day One, with transaction of almost Rs 4 crore taking place in Chandigarh's district courts.
In Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district, an area known for people taking every small matter to court, over 14,000 cases were disposed off in one day itself
In Ludhiana district alone, 56 Judicial Benches were set up during the Mega Lok Adalat and more than 44000 cases were disposed off involving a compensation of around 37.71 crore.
Haryana, Financial Commissioner& Principal Secretary (Power), Ashok Lavasa said here today that the distribution corporations had offered an attractive settlement scheme for all type of cases pending in various courts, to settle through Mega Lok Adalats by paying 50 per cent of the penalty in most of the cases. Surcharge levied on the arrears in such cases was to be waived off 100 per cent. Responding to the attractive scheme, as many as 3240 consumers came forward to get their cases settled in Mega Lok Adalats through mutual consent. An amount of Rs 1402 crore was involved in these cases out of which Rs. 405 crore have been recovered through settlement.
A ‘mega’ Lok Adalat for settlement of the Motor Vehicle Act cases pending in the High Court, district courts of Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy besides tribunals will be organised here on February 15, 2009 in Andhra Pradesh.