Police face recognition misidentified 2,300 as potential criminals

Ask critics of police face recognition why they're so skeptical and they'll likely cite unreliability as one factor. What if the technology flags an innocent person? Unfortunately, that caution appears to have been warranted to some degree. South...

UK police make first arrest triggered by facial recognition

Police in South Wales have arrested a man using automatic facial recognition software. It's the first time a person has been seized this way in the UK, according to Wales Online, following a series of trials at large-scale public events including Dow...

Google Maps Offers “Dragon” Transport Easter Egg

If you want Google Maps to give you directions from Snowdon to Brecon Beacons in Wales, it will estimate travel times by car, bus, foot, plane, bicycle, and now by dragon. Obviously we want to go by dragon. So selecting dragon, Google Maps gives you an estimated travel time of 21 minutes. You see why you go dragon? Fastest mode of travel ever.

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Google Maps also shows a dragon icon which is very similar to the one on the Welsh flag. But sadly, this appears to be the only route that allows dragon travel. Maybe they have trouble feeding them along the way.

They don’t make it easy for Daenerys Targaryen to get around. We need more dragon routes. For now, we’ll have to take get around Westeros and Essos another way.

[via Roadtrippers via Neatorama]

Premier Farnell, Sony, team up to move Raspberry PI manufacturing to the UK

Premier Farnell, Sony team up to build Raspberry PI units in the UK

One of the biggest holdups to owning a Raspberry Pi was its stuttering availability, so much so that it even prompted a few copycat boards. Creator Eben Upton and equipment makers Premier Farnell might have found the solution, teaming up with Sony to produce an initial run of 300,000 of the educational computers at the company's UK Technology Center, in Pencoed, near Bridgend in Wales. Upton hopes to keep the cost at $25 and $35 for two boards, thanks to employing Sony's "lean manufacturing techniques," and the Japanese company has already spent £50,000 ($80,000) on new package-on-package assembly equipment -- ensuring that we'll all be able to get our hands on one soon enough.

Continue reading Premier Farnell, Sony, team up to move Raspberry PI manufacturing to the UK

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Premier Farnell, Sony, team up to move Raspberry PI manufacturing to the UK originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Sep 2012 10:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Maps to soon include waterway travel in England and Wales

Google Maps to soon include waterway travel in England and Wales

Here in America, avid motorists tend to tick that 'Avoid Ferries' option whenever possible. In England and Wales, however, travel including waterways is looked quite fondly upon. To that end, Google has reportedly started the process of mapping towpaths in the two nations, as it attempts to map bridges, locks and some 2,000 miles of canal / river paths. The Guardian quotes Ed Parsons, a geospatial technologist at Google UK, as saying the following: "Canal towpaths offer green routes through our towns and cities, and by working with the Canal and River Trust we're adding towpaths to Google Maps and encouraging people to discover their local waterway." As delightful as the news may be, we still can't help but focus on a single mental image. That image, if you're curious, is embedded after the break.

Continue reading Google Maps to soon include waterway travel in England and Wales

Google Maps to soon include waterway travel in England and Wales originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jun 2012 04:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Monmouthpedia: Wikipedia’s very own QR-coated Welsh town (video)

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Wikipedia's credence as a fount of reliable knowledge is indubitably dubious. That said, its penchant for community contribution is what's snowballed the site into a go-to digital destination for most online denizens. But forebear of a QR-indexed, former principality? Surely, there's a limit to the social web's reach. Well, come May 19th, that odd, but apt distinction will officially encapsulate Monmouthpedia, née Monmouth, Wales -- an experiment in informational graffiti. The project, originally born from a Bristol-based TEDx talk, has taken half a year for founder John Cummings to execute given the need for County Council and local business support, the installation of a pervasive, free WiFi network and additional article contributions from site volunteers. And thanks to QRpedia, curious mobile-wielding tourists that chance upon the quaint Welsh town will need only to scan the omnipresent codes for an easy redirect to a corresponding language-appropriate article. Lest you think this web-to-real world experiment is merely a one-off, bear in mind those code-bearing ceramic plates are built to last. Hop on past the break for a French-subbed informational video tour.

Continue reading Monmouthpedia: Wikipedia's very own QR-coated Welsh town (video)

Monmouthpedia: Wikipedia's very own QR-coated Welsh town (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 May 2012 13:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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