Google Announces New API That Can Detect & Identify Objects Using Images

Article By: Chelsea Gohd

IN BRIEF
Simplifying machine learning models is proving to be essential for advancing API. Google & other big names in tech are working to develop mobile models that will make the tech more accessible.

ADVANCING API
Attention all developers, researchers & enthusiasts: Google has announced that they will be releasing a new. API is, simply put, a set of rules & tools to help build software. Google’s new TensorFlow object detection API is designed to make it easier to identify objects using images. The API includes models that are designed to work on even on comparatively simple devices, like smartphones.

Simplifying machine learning models is proving to be essential for advancing API & machine learning technologies. We don’t all have massive desktop setups w/our own servers capable of handling just about anything. While it’s possible to run them through the cloud, that usually proves to be abysmally slow & also requires an internet connection. That means that in order to make these models more accessible to the average consumer, they’ll need to be simplified.

Keeping that in mind, Google intends for this new API to be extremely user-friendly, allowing anyone & everyone with a basic computer or smartphone to explore the world of machine learning.

APPLYING THE API
We know that this new API can be used to identify objects by using images but beyond being amusing, could that actually be useful in our everyday lives? As it turns out — yes, it likely could be. This type of API could lead to advancement in facial recognition, landmark detection, as well as the most obvious — object identification. These seemingly basic tools will continue to become essential in many different fields. From information services to law enforcement & even just daily digital tasks, these seemingly small strides in the progression & simplification of machine learning will only continue to push us forward.

Aside from Google’s development of the API & launch of TensorFlow lite, a streamlined version of the machine learning framework, other companies have been creating mobile models too: Facebook has used the tech to build its Caffe2Go framework & subsequently Facebook’s Style Transfer & Apple released CoreML, which aims to help run these models on iOS devices. Piece by piece, machine learning is moving closer to individual accessibility.

View full article at: https://futurism.com/google-announces-new-api-that-can-detect-and-identify-objects-using-images/

VANCOUVER POLICE ADOPT NEW TECHNOLOGY TO PREDICT PROPERTY CRIME

July 2017 – tool for coming persecution

Article By: The Vancouver Police Department

The Vancouver Police Department is adopting a new crime prediction model that allows the VPD to forecast the location of property crime & take proactive measures to prevent it. The VPD will become the 1st police agency in Canada to use this type of predictive technology for operational purposes.

“We are always looking for new & innovative ways to help combat property crime in the city,” says Chief Constable Adam Palmer, Vancouver Police Department. “This new predictive technology gives our front line officers 1 more tool to use to supplement our traditional policing methods.”

The new model is being implemented after the VPD ran a 6-month pilot study in 2016 that contributed to a substantial decrease in residential break-&-enters.

The pilot ran from April 1 to September 30, 2016. The number of residential break & enters during the test period was compared to the monthly average over the same period for the previous 4 years (2012 to 2015). The highest drop in property crime – 27% – was measured in June.

The new model provides data in 2-hour intervals for locations where residential & commercial break-&-enters are anticipated. The information is for 100-metre & 500-metre zones. Police resources can be dispatched to that area on foot or in patrol cars, to provide a visible presence to deter thieves.

The VPD’s new predictive policing model is built on GEODASH – an advanced machine-learning technology that was implemented by the VPD in 2015. A public version of GEODASH was introduced in December 2015 & is publicly available on vpd.ca. It retroactively plots the location of crimes on a map to provide a general idea of crime trends to the public.

View full article at: https://mediareleases.vpd.ca/2017/07/21/vancouver-police-adopt-new-technology-to-predict-property-crime/

Tiny, Lens-Free Camera Could Hide in Clothes, Glasses

Article By: Tracy Staedter

A tiny, paper-thin camera that has no lens could turn conventional photography on its head, according to new research.The device, a square that measures just 0.04 inches by 0.05 inches (1 by 1.2 millimeters), has the potential to switch its “aperture” among wide angle, fish eye & zoom instantaneously. And bc the device is so thin, just a few microns thick, it could be embedded anywhere. (For comparison, the average width of a human hair is about 100 microns.)

“The entire backside of your phone could be a camera,” said Ali Hajimiri, a professor of electrical engineering & medical engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) & the principal investigator of the research paper, describing the new camera.

It could be embedded in a watch or in a pair of eyeglasses or in fabric, Hajimiri told Live Science. It could even be designed to launch into space as a small package & then unfurl into very large, thin sheets that image the universe at resolutions never before possible, he added.

“There’s no fundamental limit on how much you could increase the resolution,” Hajimiri said. “You could do gigapixels if you wanted.” (A gigapixel image has 1 billion pixels or 1,000 times more than an image from a 1-megapixel digital camera.)

Hajimiri & his colleagues presented their innovation, called an optical phased array, at the Optical Society’s (OSA) Conference on Lasers & Electro-Optics, which was held in March. The research was also published online in the OSA Technical Digest.

The proof-of-concept device is a flat sheet w/an array of 64 light receivers that can be thought of as tiny antennas tuned to receive light waves, Hajimiri said. Each receiver in the array is individually controlled by a computer program. In fractions of a second, the light receivers can be manipulated to create an image of an object on the far right side of the view or on the far left or anywhere in between. And this can be done w/out pointing the device at the objects, which would be necessary with a camera.

“The beauty of this thing is that we create images w/out any mechanical movement,” he said.

Hajimiri called this feature a “synthetic aperture.” To test how well it worked, the researchers laid the thin array over a silicon computer chip. In experiments, the synthetic aperture collected light waves & then other components on the chip converted the light waves to electrical signals that were sent to a sensor. The resulting image looks like a checkerboard w/illuminated squares, but this basic low-resolution image is just 1st step, Hajimiri said. The device’s ability to manipulate incoming light waves is so precise & fast that, theoretically, it could capture 100s of different kinds of images in any kind of light, including infrared, in a matter of seconds, he said.

“You can make an extremely powerful & large camera,” Hajimiri said.

Achieving a high-power view with a conventional camera requires that the lens be very big, so that it can collect enough light. This is why professional photographers on the sidelines of sporting events wield huge camera lenses. But bigger lenses require more glass & that can introduce light & color flaws in the image. The researchers’ optical phased array doesn’t have that problem, or any added bulk, Hajimiri said.

For the next stage of their research, Hajimiri & his colleagues are working to make the device larger w/more light receivers in the array.

“Essentially, there’s no limit on how much you could increase the resolution,” he said. “It’s just a question of how large you can make the phased array.”

View full article at: https://www.livescience.com/59642-ultrathin-tiny-lens-free-camera.html

Facebook Messenger could be recording you w/your own camera, taking photos and sending texts w/out your permission

Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in they bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter – Ecclesiastes 10:20

…be wise as serpents – Matthew 10:16

Article By: Hannah Gale

Facebook has become such a familiar household name that when many of us were forced into downloading the messenger app onto our phones, we didn’t think to check out the terms & conditions. ‘It’s Facebook,’ we might have thought. ‘If they were going to do anything weird & out there the media would have reported it straight away.’ Except we didn’t… well, not until a billion people had already downloaded the social media app.

1 savvy Facebook user, Sam Fiorella, decided he would delve into the T&Cs & what he found is pretty damn terrifying.

Apparently, Facebook can take photos, send texts & even record calls all w/out your permission. Meaning you’ll have no control over what it’s doing behind the scenes whatsoever. Even weirder, & perhaps even more unsettling, is that they can read personal data on your phone about both yourself & your contacts & then pass the info on. Bit scary, huh?

It’s worth noting that many apps contain Ts&Cs like these, but rarely, if ever, have a need to use them. Still, Sam shared a list of the worst offending Ts&Cs & while there is the ability to fiddle around yourself to some extent w/the security settings, it’s still slightly sinister.

View full article at: http://metro.co.uk/2014/08/08/facebook-messenger-could-be-recording-you-with-your-own-camera-taking-photos-and-sending-texts-without-your-permission-4825881/

How the NSA can ‘turn on’ your phone remotely

Commentary By: Albert Mascheroni

Why do mobile phones come w/non-removable batteries nowadays?

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. – 2 Thessalonians 2:7

Commentary In Response to Article By: Jose Pagliery

Even if you power off your cell phone, the U.S. government can turn it back on. That’s what ex-spy Edward Snowden revealed in last week’s interview w/NBC’s Brian Williams. It sounds like sorcery. Can someone truly bring your phone back to life w/out touching it? No. But government spies can get your phone to play dead. It’s a crafty hack. You press the button. The device buzzes. You see the usual power-off animation. The screen goes black. But it’ll secretly stay on — microphone listening & camera recording.

How did they get into your phone in the 1st place? Here’s an explanation by former members of the CIA, Navy SEALs & consultants to the U.S. military’s cyber warfare team. They’ve seen it 1sthand. Government spies can set up their own miniature cell network tower. Your phone automatically connects to it. Now, that tower’s radio waves send a command to your phone’s antennae: the base-band chip. That tells your phone to fake any shutdown & stay on.

A smart hack won’t keep your phone running at 100%, though. Spies could keep your phone on standby & just use the microphone — or send pings announcing your location.

John Pirc, who did cyber-security research at the CIA, said these methods — & others, like physically bugging devices — let the U.S. hijack & reawaken terrorists’ phones.

“The only way you can tell is if your phone feels warm when it’s turned off. That means the base-band processor is still running,” said Pirc, now chief technology officer of the NSS Labs security research firm.

This isn’t easy to accomplish. It’s a highly targeted attack. But if you are really concerned about the government’s ability to reawaken your phone, here are some things you could do:

(1) Recovery mode. Put your phone on what’s known as Device Firmware Upgrade (DFU) mode. This bypasses the phone’s operating system. Every phone has a different approach for this. It’s fairly easy (albeit cumbersome) for iPhone users. Plug it into a computer w/iTunes open. Hold down the Power & Home buttons for 10 seconds (no less) then let go of the Power button. Wait for an iTunes pop-up. That’s it. For Android users, recovery mode varies by model. Android Magazine has a great tutorial here: http://www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk/tutorials/get-to-know-android-recovery-mode/.

(2) Create a barrier. Use a signal-blocking phone case. You can buy them (Off Pocket, HideCell) or even make your own — assuming you have the patience to do so.

(3) Pull out the battery. W/out a power source, the phone can’t come back on. This is the best, most surefire option. It’s also, annoyingly, no longer a choice on most top-of-the-line smartphones. The iPhone, HTC One & Nokia Lumia don’t have removable batteries. Luckily, the Samsung Galaxy & LG G3 still do.

Silent Circle, a company that enables top-end private communication, kept these issues in mind when it co-created the Blackphone. It has a removable battery. It uses PrivatOS, a stripped-down version of Android that reduces tracking. & bc spoofed cell towers can target its antennae too, Blackphone’s makers are working w/chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA, Tech30) to develop their own custom, more secure base-band chip.

Silent Circle CEO Mike Janke, a former Navy SEAL, said they designed the phone based on revelations that the NSA can find powered off phones & the FBI can tap their microphones.

You probably don’t need to fear that the National Security Agency is using this strategy on your phone, Janke said. Those spies are focused on hunting down a specified list of terrorists & foreign fighters. But he noted that the FBI is using these kinds of surveillance tactics in the U.S. for all sorts of crimes.

View full article at: http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/06/technology/security/nsa-turn-on-phone/

Microsoft will now force you to use its favorite Windows 10 feature, whether you like it or not

Commentary By: Albert Mascheroni

Never forced! Always a choice!

If you want to use their operating system, then you have no choice but to facilitate them spying on you & your loved 1s. But do not be deceived; there is always a choice! You can choose to downgrade. You can choose to NOT use their software. No matter what they do to make it appear that you have no options…you ALWAYS have options!

He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong. – Job 5:12-13

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. – 1 Corinthians 3:19-20

View full post at: https://www.facebook.com/al.masch.50/posts/561038500742501

Commentary In Response to Article By: Business Insider

Cortana is named after the character from the “Halo” video game series. Microsoft is madly in love w/Cortana, the digital personal assistant that comes w/every copy of the year-old Windows 10 operating system. Not only does Cortana slot right into Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s ambitions around artificial intelligence & the future of technology, she’s also driving lots of folks towards Bing, Microsoft’s own search engine.

So it’s disappointing, but not surprising, that Microsoft is removing the ability to turn off Cortana once the Windows 10 Anniversary Update drops on August 2nd, as 1st reported by PC World’s Ian Paul. Previously, Windows 10 users could turn off Cortana, leaving in her place a more basic search bar that could scan your own files & folders. That means forgoeing Cortana’s nifty features, including the ability to schedule reminders or see your calendar, but it’s been a worthy trade-off for those users worried about Microsoft tracking too much user data.

Now, Microsoft is removing the option. Once the update hits, if you want to search your own computer, you’re using Cortana. And unless you’re using Windows 10 at work, there’s no way to turn down the Anniversary Update or any other Windows update.

There’s a big caveat here: While signing in to Cortana unlocks a bunch more features, including delivering personalized news stories & access to your contacts & calendar, you don’t have to. You can use her anonymously, not tied to any account. So if you are really concerned about privacy, you should simply sign out of Cortana — but Microsoft will still get anonymous data when you use it. You can also hide the Cortana bar entirely from the taskbar.

Generally speaking, Windows 10 is pretty great & Cortana is a big part of why I personally love it so much. But it’s always disappointing to see Microsoft take away user choice, especially for something that’s as central to their day as the Windows 10 PC.

This news comes after Microsoft disabled the ability to use Google when Cortana performs web searches, forcing the use of the Microsoft Edge browser & the Bing search engine. Just last week, Microsoft reported that Bing is doing better than ever, up 16% in the last quarter over the same time in 2015.

Here’s what a Microsoft spokesperson tells us:

W/the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, the search box is now Cortana. Customers can expect the same great search experience powered by Bing & Microsoft Edge w/the added benefit of Cortana’s personality. We know consumers want choice & we make it easy to customize Cortana’s personalization or opt-out of Cortana’s suite of personalized services. Cortana works best when you sign in, but if you choose not to, you can still use her to chat, search the web & your Windows device. If you like, you can also easily hide Cortana & the search box in the taskbar altogether.

View full article at: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-now-force-favorite-windows-204543257.html

Article By: Alex Fitzpatrick

Anybody who’s already a little suspicious of camera-equipped drones flying around their neighborhood just got another reason to fuel their droneaphobia: Thermal cameras.

Leading drone company DJI worked w/imaging company FLIR Systems to create the Zenmuse XT, a thermal camera for drones. Thermal cameras work in the infrared spectrum instead of visible light, resulting in images that make it easy to pick out heat sources, like human bodies or fires.DJI hasn’t put a price tag on the Zenmuse XT just yet. But it has said it will only work w/the company’s higher-end drones, so don’t expect to see your neighbor flying around w/1 just yet. DJI is marketing the camera towards professional applications, like firefighting & agriculture.

“Almost every week we see new applications of our aerial technology,” said DJI Founder and CEO Frank Wang in a statement. “Adding thermal imaging as an additional sensor options for aerial platforms will open up new AND innovative uses for our users, whether it’s gaining strategic insight into how their crops are growing or more efficiently understanding the spread of fires.”

View full article at: http://time.com/4145605/dji-drone-thermal-camera/?xid=time_socialflow_twitter

Your iPhone Keeps a List of Everywhere You’ve Ever Been. Here’s How to Delete It

Article By: Alicia Adamczyk

Here’s how to delete your “frequent locations” – We’ve all become lax w/our privacy in the Facebook age but this iPhone feature may take things a bit too far. Buried deep (deep) in your privacy settings is an automated feature that records every place you’ve ever visited, every time you’ve been there.

After reading about the Big Brother-esque app on Thrillest, I went to my settings to see how much it really knew about me. Turns out it could pinpoint my apartment here in New York, the address of the house I stayed in during a recent trip to Boston & my home address back in Michigan. In fact, your iPhone lists all of the exact locations of the major cities you’ve been recently.

If that isn’t disconcerting enough, beneath every location you’ve visited, it lists the # of recorded visits in a certain time period. If you click on a location, it will list out all of the times & dates of your visit. That terrible bar I spent too much time in a few weeks ago? Recorded for posterity. The fact that my mom wasn’t lying when she complained that I visited friends more often than her when I was home for the weekend? Easily provable.

Want to turn it off? (I assume so.) Here’s how:
– Go to the Settings menu, select Privacy
– Select Location Services
– Scroll down (really far) to the bottom (keep going) & select System Services
– Scroll & select Frequent Locations
– Get sufficiently creeped out by how much your iPhone knows about you
– Select ‘Clear History’ & swipe the Frequent Locations tab left

How to keep your phone from tracking you in the 1st place?
Keep your Location Services off & only turn them on when you’re lost or, say, need an Uber. If you want to leave Location Services on at all times, just turn “Frequent Locations” off. Since all wireless phones are required by law to have a GPS locator built in for emergencies, your location still won’t be totally anonymous. But this way, a history of everywhere you’ve been won’t be so easy to see.

View full article at: http://time.com/money/4110183/iphone-map-knows-everywhere-youve-ever-been-how-to-delete-it/?xid=yahoo_monpartner?xid=yahoo_money

Cops are asking Ancestry.com & 23andMe for their customers’ DNA

Article By: Kashmir Hill

When companies like Ancestry.com & 23andMe 1st invited people to send in their DNA for genealogy tracing & medical diagnostic tests, privacy advocates warned about the creation of giant genetic databases that might 1 day be used against participants by law enforcement. DNA, after all, can be a key to solving crimes. It “has serious information about you & your family,” genetic privacy advocate Jeremy Gruber told me back in 2010 when such services were just getting popular.

Now, 5 years later, when 23andMe & Ancestry both have over a million customers, those warnings are looking prescient. “Your relative’s DNA could turn you into a suspect,” warns Wired, writing about a case from earlier this year, in which New Orleans filmmaker Michael Usry became a suspect in an unsolved murder case after cops did a familial genetic search using semen collected in 1996. The cops searched an Ancestry.com database & got a familial match to a saliva sample Usry’s father had given years earlier. Usry was ultimately determined to be innocent & the Electronic Frontier Foundation called it a “wild goose chase” that demonstrated “the very real threats to privacy & civil liberties posed by law enforcement access to private genetic databases.”

The FBI maintains a national genetic database w/samples from convicts & arrestees, but this was the most public example of cops turning to private genetic databases to find a suspect. But it’s not the only time it’s happened, & it means that people who submitted genetic samples for reasons of health, curiosity, or to advance science could now end up in a genetic line-up of criminal suspects. Both Ancestry.com & 23andMe stipulate in their privacy policies that they will turn information over to law enforcement if served with a court order. 23andMe says it’s received a couple of requests from both state law enforcement & the FBI, but that it has “successfully resisted them.”

23andMe’s 1st privacy officer Kate Black, who joined the company in February, says 23andMe plans to launch a transparency report, like those published by Google, Facebook & Twitter, w/in the next month or so. The report, she says, will reveal how many government requests for information the company has received, & presumably, how many it complies with.

“In the event we are required by law to make a disclosure, we will notify the affected customer through the contact information provided to us, unless doing so would violate the law or a court order,” said Black by email.

Ancestry.com would not say specifically how many requests it’s gotten from law enforcement. It wanted to clarify that in the Usry case, the particular database searched was a publicly available 1 that Ancestry has since taken offline with a message about the site being “used for purposes other than that which it was intended.” Police came to Ancestry.com with a warrant to get the name that matched the DNA.

“On occasion when required by law to do so, & in this instance we were, we have cooperated w/law enforcement & the courts to provide only the specific information requested but we don’t comment on the specifics of cases,” said a spokesperson.

As NYU law professor Erin Murphy told the New Orleans Advocate regarding the Usry case, gathering DNA information is “a series of totally reasonable steps by law enforcement.” If you’re a cop trying to solve a crime & you have DNA at your disposal, you’re going to want to use it to further your investigation. But the fact that your signing up for 23andMe or Ancestry.com means that you & all of your current & future family members could become genetic criminal suspects is not something most users probably have in mind when trying to find out where their ancestors came from.

“It has this really Orwellian state feeling to it,” Murphy said to the Advocate.

If the idea of investigators poking through your DNA freaks you out, both Ancestry.com & 23andMe have options to delete your information w/the sites. 23andMe says it will delete information w/in 30 days upon request.

View full article at: http://fusion.net/story/215204/law-enforcement-agencies-are-asking-ancestry-com-and-23andme-for-their-customers-dna/

Facebook will warn you if you’re subject to government ‘attacks’

Article By: Matt Brian

Imagine logging into Facebook to find a message telling you that your profile may have been targeted in a suspected state-sponsored attack. It’s now a possibility, after the social network announced that it’ll display a new notification if someone who is suspected of “working on behalf of a nation-state” has attempted to snoop on or take over your account.

In the wake of Edward Snowden’s NSA spying leaks, US companies have stepped forward to take more action on behalf of their users. Facebook’s Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos says the company continuously monitors accounts for any malicious activity, but has decided to roll out an additional warning bc nation-state cyber-attacks (by people working on behalf of a foreign government) “tend to be more advanced & dangerous than others.”

Of course, high-profile accounts are more likely to be targeted & such attacks will likely have government-sanctioned motives behind them. However, if you do receive the warning, the bulletin recommends enabling 2-factor approvals (if they haven’t been enabled already), making it harder for nefarious types to tamper w/your online presence.

The message isn’t linked to “any compromise of Facebook’s platform or systems,” says Stamos. The person in question may have had their computer or smartphone infected w/malware, which often gives an attacker the login information they need to access a person’s account.

“To protect the integrity of our methods & processes, we often won’t be able to explain how we attribute certain attacks to suspected attackers,” adds Stamos. “That said, we plan to use this warning only in situations where the evidence strongly supports our conclusion.”

View full article at: http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/19/facebook-state-sponsored-profile-attack-warnings/