Daily Headers: May 5, 2009

Retail Survey Shows Crime Continues to Rise Amid Troubled Economy
PRNewswire

• Today, RILA released a survey conducted of America's largest retailers that indicates an increase in retail crime associated with an economy in distress over the past four months.
• Respondents included 32 of the largest and most successful retailers in the U.S., from all segments including grocery, mass merchant, specialty store, apparel, electronics and appliances, and fabric/craft retail.
• Of the reported statistics:
• 61% of retailers surveyed report having experienced an increase in amateur/opportunistic shoplifting in the last 4 months.
• 55% have experienced an increase in financial fraud.
• 72% of respondents report that they continue to see an increase in organized retail crime (ORC).
• No retailers reported a decrease at all in amateur/opportunistic shoplifting since last surveyed.
• Looks like the holiday trend I blogged about in December has kept its momentum into the late winter and early spring months.
  

Uproar over face scan for foreign students
WAToday.com
Cameron Houston

• Melbourne colleges are considering the introduction of facial recognition technology at classroom doors to curb abuse of international student visas.
• The proposal has angered civil libertarians and overseas student organizations, which said the new measure has discriminated against foreign students and could threaten Victoria's $3.9 billion international education industry.
• Three Melbourne colleges or TAFE schools said they would consider the software, which requires overseas students to have their faces scanned. Cameras would then identify students entering or leaving classrooms and automatically record attendance.
• Looks like Aussies are following in Mother England's footsteps in implementing biometrics for attendance-taking purposes?
  

Robot Animals Snare U.S. Poachers
National Geographic
Maryann Mott

• Researchers have designed turkeys that are actually robotic decoys designed to catch such outdoor outlaws. Other robots include a swimming moose, white-tailed deer and black bear.
• For nearly 20 years, the Oregon State Police Department's Fish and Wildlife Division has run a decoy operation targeting violators who hunt off-season from their cars and roadways or at night with the aid of a spotlight.
• Molded-fiberglass animals are wrapped in genuine hides obtained by government officers through donations or illegal kills.
• Inside the bodies are radio-controlled motors—the same type found in toy cars or planes—allowing wildlife officers to remotely move a decoy's head, ears, and tail. Special reflective eyes glow at night when light is shined on them.
• The robots don't come cheap: Prices range from $500 for turkey to $5,500 for a grizzly bear.
• Not sure which I'm more afraid of -- the actual mammals or the robotic version. Do know I won't be caught poaching either of them anytime soon.

IHF Roundup: Female Robot Struts Her Stuff, Robotic Fish Invades Foreign Waters and Other Top Headlines This Week

Some ongoing trends I've been seeing for a few months are all relating back to technological innovation in industries traditionally uninterested in the stuff. Whether it's biometric systems, robotic deployments or surveillance initiatives, they're popping up everywhere. In particular, a couple robotics headlines caught my eye this week as they have been making their way into unfamiliar waters -- and runways.

British scientists are developing robotic fish to detect pollution. Coming in around $29,000 apiece, these wireless robots, five feet in length, are enabled with sensors to smell out hazardous chemicals leaking from marine vessels and underwater pipelines. They're being tested in the northern Spanish port of Gijon, and if successful, could potentially be used worldwide. Price point might need to drop a bit to ensure large-scale deployment, but very exciting potential here to sniff out and eliminate leaks polluting our waters.

Almost on the other end of the robotics spectrum, Japanese robotics teams have created a female robot that walk and talks -- down fashion runways, that is. Making her debut at a Tokyo fashion show next week, the five-foot two-inch black-haired HRP-4C robot will ultimately be used to "perform simulations of human movement" in amusement parks, exercise clubs and other such crowded environments. Perhaps, a long lost relative of this robotic performer...

Happy to say that Frost & Sullivan released validation for the growth in biometrics technologies this week. According to Matia Grossi, Frost & Sullivan's industry analyst, "The market for biometrics products is going to almost triple by 2012 from its 2008 value." Exciting stuff, but not entirely surprising considering check and retail fraud rates are skyrocketing and security breaches are causing chaos everywhere. Obviously, the demand for appropriate security initiatives is there and technologies will increase accordingly.

While traditional biometrics have primarily rooted themselves in government agencies, financial institutions and airports, educational outlets, hospitals and even airlines themselves are now implementing these systems. While the current statistics show governments to occupy 44.5% of the market, it's evident from headlines this week growing initiatives in other sectors may soon shift that majority elsewhere.

We've seen biometric security systems implemented all over airports, from the security checkpoints to customs. But biometrics to board planes? That's new.

Air France announced this week the beginning of trials of its new fingerprint-based boarding system -- "smartboarding" -- on the Paris-Amsterdam route. With this new procedure, passengers book their flights online normally and check in at airport kiosks where they receive their thermal-inked boarding pass. Once at the gate, their fingerprints are scanned prior to boarding the airplane. If it saves me from taking my driver's license in and out of my wallet five times before sitting down in my seat, I'm all for it.

Continuing this biometrics growth, schools nationwide, specifically Wyoming and Florida, are installing biometrics keypads in cafeterias to improve accounting systems and provide speedier service. One article even states lunch sales at one school improved 17 percent after using the devices. If not only to get kids into their seats more quickly, bringing in more revenues from those lunches can't hurt struggling schools. Gives new meaning to the term 'fast food.'

Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

According to the United Kingdom Biometrics Institute, biometrics are taking schools by storm -- the group estimates about one million children have had fingerprints taken to borrow library books, pay for school dinners or other rudimentary activities, and some UK community colleges are taking these technologies to the next level.

St. Neots Community College in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire and the City of Ely Community College are taking part in a pilot program to monitor students' presence on campus. As this article indicates, the process is quite streamlined and student check-in only takes about two seconds each time.

"When students check in or out of school, they enter a pin on to the keypad and look at the camera. The measurements from the photograph are matched against the student’s biometric identifier, and the time of arrival (or departure) is stored in the unit’s internal computer."

Not only reliable in recording attendance data (and with the added capability of providing accurate print-outs of students on campus in case of an emergency), the technology has turned out to be quite the shortcut in taking attendance compared to traditional methods. According to sources, the system saves staff members about ninety minutes each day in recording attendance data.

City of Ely Community College Principal Richard Barker said: "With this new registration technology, we are hoping to free up our teachers' time and allow them to spend it on what they are meant to be doing, which is teaching."

Ninety minutes of extra class time per day? That's a worthy investment in itself.

Beverly Hills 48025

It seems that my old high school in Beverly Hills, Michigan has found itself embroiled in a debate over the use of surveillance in its hallways after cash, MP3 players and cell phones were stolen from several lockers. While this may signal a loss in trust in the community, it could also be reflective of the expensive nature of many items commonly found in lockers nowadays.

"It's one more sign that times are different today," Jim Ballard, executive director of the Michigan Association of Principals, said. "Years ago, we trusted each other more than we do now.”

I can also tell you firsthand that years ago, we students didn’t keep a lot of cash, MP3 players and cell phones in our lockers. Heck, if you broke into mine, you would have been lucky to find some old textbooks, gym socks and a Daisy Duke poster. Not quite a treasure trove of goods compared to what's readily available today.

But whether or not what students put into their lockers is valuable, the students themselves are pretty valuable, and it seems to me they deserve at least the same level of protection afforded to the malls they hang out in.

However, not all the students think new security measures are such a good idea.

Seaholm student Jake Drutchas wrote the following comment on the wall of a Facebook group called, "Seaholm and Groves Students Against Security Cameras," which has more than 870 members, "For now, let's start with a little student responsibility. Lock your stuff up. Don't leave it out in the open."

He has a point, but it’s also true that school security deployments have nearly always proven a smart development. I think Jake's argument is more founded on the fear that the same surveillance technology used to fight locker thefts will be turned on him for reasons other than safety.

Will the cameras be monitored all the time or just used to investigate incidents? Who will have access to the cameras and for what purposes? Lots and lots of very good questions.

If Beverly Hills Groves follows the national trend, they too will get security cameras installed -- if not this year, then sometime in the not-too-distant future. However, Jake Drutchas and his Facebook posse can continue to put their passion and energy on the issue to good use by helping the district draft a clear and responsible policy with respect to the use of surveillance inside their hallways.

There certainly are ways to balance security and privacy inside of educational institutions, and I think you will find the hippie baby-boomers who run school districts these days are more than open to them.

Nashville Schools Face Rec System (Update)

http://www.wkrn.com/nashville/news/metro-schools-unveil-face-recognition-cameras/131643.htm

From WKRN:

Tuesday, Metro Nashville Schools unveiled its new security system, aimed at keeping unwanted people out of the school buildings. As a test, the face-recognition cameras will be installed in three Metro schools. The cameras will work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, taking snapshots of every individual, looking for people who may not be welcomed. Ralph Thompson, Metro Schools’ Assistant Superintendent, said, “For instance, everyone that entered the building is now in the data bank and all we have to do is go back and store that image and put it on either our watch list or an approved list to come into the building.”

Nashville Schools Get Security Facelift

The 75,000-student Nashville School District announced that they will be deploying face recognition systems at 3 different facilities this December. It is hoped that the specialized cameras and software will help protect the safety of students, as well as, generally monitor access of the traditionally open educational settings settings.

"This will give us an edge in providing safety for our students and teachers," Thompson said of the $30,000 camera system. Several intruders have entered
Nashville schools in the past year, he said. A successful test in Nashville could prod other schools to try the technology, said Peter Pochowski, executive director of the National Association of School Safety and Law Enforcement Officers. He said Nashville is the first to use face-recognition cameras. Nashville will take digital photos of students and workers at the three test schools and store them in the new camera system, Thompson said. When a camera spots a face in a school that it cannot match to a stored photo, it will alert security. The system also could detect suspended and expelled students and fired employees, Thompson said.

In 2004, the Phoenix School District made a similar announcement, but ultimately never deployed their facial recognition systems over accuracy and privacy concerns. Of course, significant advancements in both facial recognition and privacy technologies have been made in recent years. Here is one example that I am partial to.