How rangers are using AI to help protect India’s tigers

Posted by & filed under AI/Artificial Intelligence.

Indian tiger
Protecting India’s tigers is an enormous job: most of the tiger population, which in 2018 stood at almost 3,000, live in one of the 51 tiger reserves, covering almost 74,000 square kilometres.

Just estimating the total tiger population is a daunting task.
To carry out its most recent survey, India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) deployed camera traps in 26,838 locations, taking 34,858,623 images of wildlife.
On top of that, researchers covered hundreds of thousands of kilometres on foot, looking for signs of tigers and their prey.
To wade through all that data the NTCA used artificial intelligence (AI), which had been trained to recognise different animals.
In the 2018 survey, AI helped by identifying which animals were pictured by the camera traps – a task which would have been very laborious for humans.
Now the NTCA hopes to take the use of AI to another level. A new system is being developed which can give rangers the best routes for patrolling the vast areas under their watch.

Source: BBC Technology News

Date: September 7th, 2022

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61824904

Discussion

  1. Artificial intelligence (AI), which had been trained to recognise different animals is called Machine Learning. How is the “machine” (AI) trained?
  2. The article talks about ” A new system is being developed which can give rangers the best routes for patrolling the vast areas under their watch. ” It does this by using ” an artificial intelligence which can use the data collected by cameras and rangers, but in addition uses data gathered from satellites and information collected from the local population.” How might this AI work?

Holocaust activist seems to talk to guests at her funeral

Posted by & filed under AI/Artificial Intelligence.

A video of Marina Smith at the celebration of her life

Holocaust campaigner Marina Smith appeared able to answer questions at a funeral celebration of her life, thanks to new technology – her son has said.

Mrs Smith died in June, aged 87, but video technology, built by her son’s firm, meant those attending her funeral could watch her respond to their questions about her life.

Stephen Smith said it enabled his mother to be “present, in a sense”.

His company predicts many uses for its “conversational video technology”.

Mr Smith, the chief executive and co-founder of StoryFile, told the BBC the technology meant, once a person had died, it was possible to have a conversation with them “as if they are there, and they will answer you”.

His mother’s words were her own, and not the creation of artificial intelligence (AI), Mr Smith stressed.

Source: BBC news

Date: September 7th, 2022

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-62552696

Discussion

  1. The technology behind this is here: https://storyfile.com/ You can “chat” with William Shatner, of Star Trek fame. You can ask questions like “how old are you?” and StoryFile will show William Shatner giving you the answer. It is worth showing this in class.
  2. How does this technology work?
    Here’s what StoryFile says, in part: “StoryFile’s conversational video uses AI to help the process of matching and retrieving video content provided by our customers. Our commitment is to them. We do not change or manipulate any content that was not said, or recreate the image in ways that were not originally intended by the customer or creator. ”
    It seems to me that StoryFile asks a person a bunch of questions which are stored. You can ask a question, and the AI listens to your question, and figures out which answer is best and pulls up that video answer.

UBC’s new ‘sailbot’ nearly ready for 2,500-km voyage from Victoria to Hawaii

Posted by & filed under AI/Artificial Intelligence, Automation.

Two people work on a sailboat mounted on a table, with a third carrying a sail behind them.
A team of University of B.C. engineering students are putting all hands on deck for their second attempt at an ocean crossing this month.
But once their 18-foot sailing vessel, Raye, sets course for Hawaii, it will have no hands on deck at all.
That’s because it will sail the high seas autonomously, thanks to computer programming and solar power.
The so-called “sailbot” was designed entirely by students — more than 200 were involved — and took six years to build, according to the team’s co-captain.
“Sailing is a sport of the feel, you look at the sail to see how full it is to adjust its angle,” said UBC Sailbot’s Asvin Sankaran. “Then to try to quantify that … it’s an impressive challenge.
“We really want to push the limits of engineering, and push the limits of the marine industry; autonomous technology is super ‘in’ right now.”
The 20-foot-tall craft is scheduled to set sail from Victoria later this month. Its two sails are expected to carry it more than 2,500 kilometres to Maui, Hawaii — with neither captain aboard nor navigators guiding it from afar.

Source: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Date: September 1st, 2022

Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ubc-team-robotic-sailboat-poised-to-set-course-for-hawaii-1.6557653

Discussion

  1. “Sailing is a sport of the feel, you look at the sail to see how full it is to adjust its angle” and “Then to try to quantify that … it’s an impressive challenge.” What sorts of sensors and technology will likely have been used to get “the feel” of the sail?
  2. Why is it important (or is it not important) to develop autonomous modes of transport, including sailing vessels?

Tiger Woods & Rory McIlroy launch ‘high-tech golf league’ aimed at younger fans

Posted by & filed under Consumer Technology, Data Analytics, Entertainment, eSports.

Golfers Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have launched a new “high-tech league” – intended to appeal to younger fans – that will begin in 2024.
The league will feature six, three-man teams competing on “a data-rich, virtual course” in a stadium setting.

Each of the 18-hole contests will take just two hours to complete.
The league – called TGL – will be run by TMRW Sports – the technology-focused sports company launched by Woods and McIlroy on Tuesday.

Source: BBC Sports news

Date: September 1st, 2022

Link: https://www.bbc.com/sport/golf/62665874

  1. What do you think “a data-rich, virtual course” in a stadium setting will look like, and what sort of “data” will likely be provided?
  2. Are there other sports that might be able to copy this approach using this sort of technology?

Undeclared pools in France uncovered by AI technology

Posted by & filed under AI/Artificial Intelligence, Ethical issues.

The discovery of thousands of undeclared private swimming pools in France has provided an unexpected windfall for French tax authorities.

Following an experiment using artificial intelligence (AI), more than 20,000 hidden pools were discovered.

They have amassed some €10m (£8.5m) in revenue, French media is reporting.

Pools can lead to higher property taxes because they boost property value, and must be declared under French law.

The software, developed by Google and French consulting firm Capgemini, spotted the pools on aerial images of nine French regions during a trial in October 2021.

Source: BBC Technology News

Date: September 1st, 2022

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62717599

Discussion

  1. What other uses exactly like this could this AI “find hidden swimming pools in back yards” be put to use for?
  2. What might be the ethical issues of using AI software like this?

Tech and toddlers: How Toronto’s daycares are going digital

Posted by & filed under App Economy, Cyber Security.

Ron Spreeuwenberg is CEO of HiMama, one of Canada’s fastest-growing companies.
Together with his business partner, Alana Frome, Spreeuwenberg runs HiMama, a Toronto-based tech company. Its software enables daycares to share photos and update parents on what their kids are doing during the day, as well as run their administration efficiently. It has more than a million users and is one of Canada’s fastest-growing companies. Last year, it raised $70 million and snapped up FunShine Express, an American maker of learning materials.

Source: Toronto Daily Star

Date: April 29th, 2022

Link: https://www.thestar.com/business/mars/2022/04/28/tech-and-toddlers-how-torontos-daycares-are-going-digital.html

Discussion

  1. “Every child in the daycare program is entered into the software and parents receive invitations to HiMama, which they can access through our app or website, where they receive updates about their child and can message the child’s caregiver. ” What are some of the cybersecurity issues around this?
  2. What other roles / uses could we put this software to?

Bitcoin becomes official currency in Central African Republic

Posted by & filed under Bitcoin.

Ndassima gold mine in CAR
The Central African Republic (CAR) has approved Bitcoin as legal tender – just the second country to do so.
CAR is one of the world’s poorest countries, but is rich in diamonds, gold and uranium.
It has been wracked by conflict for decades and is a close Russian ally, with mercenaries from the Wagner Group helping fight rebel forces.
Lawmakers voted unanimously to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, said a statement from the CAR presidency.
The move puts CAR “on the map of the world’s boldest and most visionary countries”, it said.

Source: BBC News

Date: April 29th, 2022

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-61248809

Discussion

  1. Computer scientist Sydney Tickaya said he thought the adoption of the cryptocurrency was “premature” and “irresponsible”. Why might this be the case?
  2. Why are some countries moving towards using bitcoin?

Salesforce’s low-code workflow tool aims to unify CRM giant’s largest acquisitions

Posted by & filed under Career, Low-code.

Salesforce logo on Moscone Center

Salesforce is a big, complex set of services, which has been augmented via acquisition with several other big complex services, including MuleSoft, Tableau and Slack, three companies the CRM giant acquired in recent years.

The company has been looking for ways to make all of these tools (including Salesforce itself) work better together, and it thinks the answer is using its low-code workflow tool, Salesforce Flow. Today, it announced an update that is designed to build integrated workflows between whichever tools in the Salesforce family you happen to be using.

It’s a bold attempt to pull together all of the pieces in the Salesforce arsenal in a more coherent fashion, using a popular tool that has been around since 2019 to do the job.https://jac.yahoosandbox.com/1.1.0/safeframe.html

Salesforce co-founder and CTO Parker Harris says that when the company launched 23 years ago, it was all about humans entering data and interacting with machines, but over time, the machine has been able to take over some of the tasks, and that’s where Flow comes in.

“It was humans going into screens and entering information and reading it, and while that’s still very important, I think the world has shifted a lot where it’s now more about automation. It’s more the computer driving business, rather than humans trying to do it all on their own,” Harris explained.

Source: SalesForce

Date: April 29th, 2022

Link: https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/27/salesforces-low-code-workflow-tool-aims-to-unify-crm-giants-largest-acquisitions/

Discussion

  1. What is a “low-code” environment?
  2. Why is an MIS major very useful major when it comes to the “Low code environment”

From misinformation to the metaverse: how tech is reshaping health care

Posted by & filed under Metaverse.

A virtual reality device created by Marion Surgical helps surgeons practise their skills on digital patients.
The pandemic exposed many weaknesses in Canada’s health-care system: We know too well about the overwhelmed hospitals and long-term-care homes; the exhausted workers and lives lost. Then there are the less obvious issues: non-existent domestic vaccine production, insufficient lab and manufacturing space for new drugs, labour shortages and a growing distrust in science. This hurts the long-term health of citizens and the economy — and if left unresolved, Canada can expect similar devastation when the next pandemic hits.
But Canada’s health-care system is more than a collection of clinics and hospitals. It’s a massive economic engine that is already working to solve these problems.
“Canada has the chance to be one of the world’s great stewards of innovative medicine and patient care,” says Rebecca Yu, an executive at Takeda, a biopharmaceutical company. “But the pandemic has taught us there’s a lot of work to be done — supporting our early-stage innovators and building essential manufacturing infrastructure is key to achieving this objective.”

Source: Toronto Daily Star

Date: April 22nd, 2022

Link: https://www.thestar.com/business/mars/2022/04/20/from-misinformation-to-the-metaverse-how-tech-is-reshaping-health-care.html

Discussion

  1. The article talks about “Activate your headsets: medicine enters the metaverse“. Is this a realistic use case for the metaverse?
  2. How could medicine and healthcare move into the metaverse?

The microchip implants that let you pay with your hand

Posted by & filed under Cyber Security, Ethical issues, Payment Technology.

A woman using a contactless payment microchip implant
Patrick Paumen causes a stir whenever he pays for something in a shop or restaurant.
This is because the 37-year-old doesn’t need to use a bank card or his mobile phone to pay. Instead, he simply places his left hand near the contactless card reader, and the payment goes through.
“The reactions I get from cashiers are priceless!” says Mr Paumen, a security guard from the Netherlands.
He is able to pay using his hand because back in 2019 he had a contactless payment microchip injected under his skin.

For many of us, the idea of having such a chip implanted in our body is an appalling one, but a 2021 survey of more than 4,000 people across the UK and the European Union found that 51% would consider it. However, without giving a percentage figure, the report added that “invasiveness and security issues remained a major concern” for respondents.

Source: BBC Business

Date: April 19th, 2022

Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61008730

Discussion

  1. Why is it a good idea to have a contactless payment card embedded in your hand? And why not?
  2. What are some of the possible “invasiveness and security issues”?