Computer security experts have developed a system capable of guessing computer and smartphone users' passwords in seconds by analyzing the traces of heat their fingertips leave on keyboards and screens. Researchers from the University of Glasgow developed the system, called ThermoSecure, to demonstrate how falling prices of thermal imaging cameras and rising access to machine learning are creating new risks for "thermal attacks." Thermal attacks can occur after users type their passcode on a computer keyboard, smartphone screen or ATM keypad before leaving the device unguarded. A passerby equipped with a thermal camera can take a picture that reveals the heat signature of where their fingers have touched the device. The brighter an area appears in the thermal image, the more recently it was touched.

One week into its invasion of Ukraine, Russia massed a 40-mile mechanised column in order to mount an overwhelming attack on Kyiv from the north. But the convoy of armoured vehicles and supply trucks ground to a halt within days, and the offensive failed, in significant part because of a series of night ambushes carried out by a team of 30 Ukrainian special forces and drone operators on quad bikes, according to a Ukrainian commander. The drone operators were drawn from an air reconnaissance unit, Aerorozvidka, which began eight years ago as a group of volunteer IT specialists and hobbyists designing their own machines and has evolved into an essential element in Ukraine's successful David-and-Goliath resistance. However, while Ukraine's western backers have supplied thousands of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles and other military equipment, Aerorozvidka has been forced to resort to crowdfunding and a network of personal contacts in order to keep going, by getting hold of components such as advanced modems and thermal imaging cameras, in the face of export controls that prohibit them being sent to Ukraine. The unit's commander, Lt Col Yaroslav Honchar, gave an account of the ambush near the town of Ivankiv that helped stop the vast, lumbering Russian offensive in its tracks.

When people think about the Internet of Things (IoT) today they're often overly focused on the things--the devices that first gave the IoT its name. But like all things digital, the IoT is rapidly evolving from the very early days of simple sensors designed to help manufacturers automate their processes, to the wide-variety of connected devices that record our steps using our watches, and allow us to talk to people through our doorbells. Early on, in an effort to make sense of just how these devices fit into our world, people started referring to them as dumb and smart. This was fine for a while. Dumb devices (think sensors and actuators) were pretty easily defined as something that just did a simple task like reading temperature or sensing vibration and then, every now and then, reporting that information back to some kind of control system.

Chinese companies specialising in facial recognition have upgraded the technology to identify people wearing masks in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Chinese company SenseTime, described as'the most valuable AI startup in the world' and worth at least $4.5billion, is one of several firms improving its facial recognition to ensure a person cna be identified without them taking off their mask. Instead of relying on having to see a person's mouth, the system is able to learn a person's identify from just their eyes and upper nose region of their face. People around the world are increasingly opting to wear medical masks and even respirators to prevent catching the potentially fatal COVID-19. The disease has claimed the lives of more than 2,700 people around the world and infected a total of around 80,000.

Thermal Imaging sensors are commonly referred to terminology such as thermal camera, temperature camera, heat vision camera, infrared camera, thermal imaging sensor, heat signature camera, and even thermal heat vision sensor. In this post we will refer to this type of imaging as infrared or thermal imaging. Infrared energy is generated by the vibration of atoms and molecules. The higher the temperature of an object, the faster its molecules and atoms move. This movement is emitted as infrared radiation which our eyes cannot see but our skin can feel. Thermal imaging is the use of a special infrared camera sensors to illuminate a spectrum of light invisible to the naked eye.

After Uber's fatal self-driving crash last month in Tempe, Arizona, most observers had two basic question: Why did the car not see Elaine Herzberg crossing the street and stop before hitting her? And how can we stop this happening again, to someone else? The ride-hailing company has indefinitely suspended its testing program, and is cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation of the crash. The NTSB hasn't revealed any findings yet, but the lidar--the laser-shooting sensor that should have spotted Herzberg, even in the dark--is an obvious focus. Maybe it had a blind spot, or lacked the resolution to identify Herzberg as a pedestrian.

Drone company DJI is expanding its efforts in the commercial sector with a new thermal imaging camera and a payload software development kit (SDK) that will allow startups and developers to integrate custom gear onto DJI drones. The Zenmuse XT2 thermal imaging camera, developed as part of an ongoing partnership with FLIR Systems, builds upon the original Zenmuse XT which was released in 2015. Side-by-side visual and thermal imaging sensors have been designed with emergency services and disaster recovery in mind, allowing operators to capture heat signatures otherwise invisible to the naked eye. QuickTrack mode centers the camera on a selected area, while HeatTrack automatically detects the hottest object in view. The on-board Temp Alarm interprets thermal data in real-time, alerting drone operators if an object exceeds critical thresholds.

Scanning an empty field that once housed a Shaker village in New Hampshire, Jesse Casana had come in search of the foundations of stone buildings, long-forgotten roadways and other remnants of this community dating to the 1790s. But instead of a trowel and shovel, Casana and his Dartmouth College colleague Chad Hill are using a drone equipped with a thermal imaging camera and mapping instruments. The camera can identify remnants of buildings and other structures up to several feet below the surface, since the temperatures of that brick or stone material is often warmer than the soil around it. Dartmouth's Chad Hill readies a drone to be flown over a site of a Shaker Village in Enfield, NH. The team was able to recognize traces of long-removed historic buildings and pathways at the Shaker Village in Enfield, N.H. The community once housed nearly 100 buildings but was sold in the 1920s and is now an outdoor history museum.

Energy, insurance, telecommunications, and many other industries could also have drones in their future.