detection

High-tech can protect soldiers in the field, but it hasn't been much use against that age-old threat on the home front; and that's Jody, the 4-F opportunist of yore, who's busy bird-doggin' Snuffy's wife while he's 7000 miles away dodging RPGs.

Time was, the cuckold only began to suspect something amiss when he arrived home to find an off brand butt in the car ashtray or a different flavor of beer in the fridge. No more. Here are a few suggestions on how to keep an eye on things while the cat's away.

The … Read more

In simpler times remote-controlled toys were just meant to have fun--like slot cars without tracks, in a reference for the geezers among us. Today, however, their uses are often more dubious: When they're not trying to cause a heart attack, they're used for spying or shocking and everything evil in between.

So we were relieved to find that there's at least one RC car with a purpose that's actually useful without being nefarious. The "Metal-Detect -Car" is true to its name, with built-in technology that can identify lost or hidden metallic objects while traversing &… Read more

It's not that we're paranoid or anything, but we're certain that covert surveillance cameras are everywhere in our midst. It doesn't help that we're keenly aware of all the pen cameras, pen camcorders, and even pen DVRs on Crave.

Finally, there's a writing instrument designed to fight back against the secret societies that threaten our privacy. The "Auto Detective Pen" from Chinavasion will supposedly start flashing like crazy if it detects wireless signals within a 10-meter radius that could be used to operate spy cams and other clandestine gadgetry. As Uber-Review says, … Read more

MONTEREY, Calif.--Get ready for a new era in which your camera knows not just when you took a picture but who's in it, too.

Many cameras today can detect the faces of those being photographed, which is handy for guiding the camera to set its exposure, focus, and color balance properly. But the more difficult challenge of face recognition is more useful after the photo has been taken.

That's because of a concept called autotagging, one of a number of technologies that make digital photography qualitatively different from the film photography of the past.

Tags of descriptive … Read more

Another member joins the anti-terrorism team: working bees.

Bees--or rather, bee tongues--are the olfactory key to the new "Vapor Detection Instrumentation" developed by a company called Inscentinel. The "instrument" detects explosives, cancer, drugs and pretty much anything else that stinks, according to the U.K. company.

Inscentinel uses Pavlovian principles to train the bees, the same way it's done with canines. For every successful sniff of contraband, the little guys are rewarded with food. The bees are taped to the "measurement device," and a camera alerts the operator when they stick their … Read more

Summer is in full swing and the season is heating up with new camera announcements. Fuji steps to the plate with five new models that follow the trend toward more megapixels and slowly growing zoom ranges, while adding to the company's set of signature features. As with the company's PMA introductions, all the new cameras will be able to store images to both xD Picture Cards and SD cards, as well as SDHC cards.

With the Finepix F50fd, Fuji is introducing a new version of the company's face-detection technology, which Fuji calls Face Detection 2.0. While … Read more

For its first major update in over two years, Lavasoft's Ad-Aware 2007 offers a redesigned interface and an overhauled detection engine, along with an enhanced Update Manager and a new Tracksweep feature that clears your browsing history for multiple applications with one click.

Take a quick tour of Ad-Aware 2007 with this First Look video.

update 5/8/07: Here's a lesson for all of us: Don't try to blog at 1am after doing a 7-hour shift of cat adoptions.

Okay, maybe that's just a lesson for me.

It turns out I made a couple of mistakes in this blog entry. At least my errors were pointed out by polite readers, not the ones who feel compelled to verbally abuse you for the occasional slipup. You know who you are.

In any case, I've updated the text to reflect islandgirl45CV's comments, as well as an email from a reader about … Read more

Technologies like the "DriveMaster Pro" may provide a ton of information about what's going on with a car's engine and emissions, but how about what's going on inside? Volvo has extended its reputation for road safety to the realm of personal security, developing a new technology that can detect if someone is hiding in a car.

Using a heartbeat sensor, the Volvo S80's "Personal Car Communicator" will flash its lights if there's "a murderous criminal hiding in the back seat," Popgadget says. The device is aimed at less sinister … Read more