The inaugural recognition identifies leading incubators and accelerators across the United States based on alumni evaluations, peer recommendations, track records, and measurable founder outcomes. Operated through The University of Southern Mississippi Research Foundation, Gulf Blue Navigator is a late-stage accelerator supporting companies developing technologies across the Blue Economy, including maritime systems, aquaculture, coastal resilience, ocean observation, autonomous technologies, and advanced manufacturing. Natalie Guess, Assistant Director of Innovation and Impact at Southern Miss, said the recognition reinforces Mississippi’s growing innovation ecosystem and its national reach. “Being recognized by TIME and Statista as one of America’s best incubators and accelerators is an incredible honor and a meaningful validation of the work our team, partners, mentors and companies have built together. Gulf Blue Navigator was created to provide more than traditional accelerator programming. We connect companies with customers, research expertise, testing and demonstration capabilities, investors, manufacturers, government partners and the resources needed to move technologies from discovery to commercialization and deployment,” said Guess. The recognition was based on three primary components: Alumni Evaluations Analysis, which considered overall recommendations and six additional evaluation criteria; Track Record Analysis, which assessed information about leading companies that participated in each organization’s programs; and Expert Recommendation Analysis, which was based on recommendations from startup investors and experienced entrepreneurs. Jamie Miller, President and CEO of the Gulf Coast Business Council (GCBC), has supported Gulf Blue Navigator and its role along the Mississippi coast. The GCBC recognized Gulf Blue Navigator with the Rising Tide Award during the 2026 State of the Coast Symposium in May. “Gulf Blue Navigator’s recognition by TIME as one of the Top 100 accelerators is a tremendous validation of the innovative ecosystem being built here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. By connecting entrepreneurs with world-class research, industry expertise, federal partners and resources to scale, Gulf Blue
Aug 20, 2026 · via oceannews.com
Police Scotland is being urged to adopt live facial recognition technology to crack down on violent crime and football disorder. In his latest annual report, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland Craig Naylor has called on both the Scottish Government and policing to “be ambitious” in rolling out the tools. He said when used responsibly, drones and facial recognition technologies could “reduce the threats posed to the public from high-risk sex offenders, organised crime groups, violent offenders and others whose activities cause significant harm to communities”. He advised “the challenge” for public sector leaders was “not whether to adopt these technologies, but how quickly they can do so safely, ethically and effectively”. Mr Naylor said: “Police and law enforcement partners must seek to exploit, with appropriate safeguards in place, advancements in operational technology such as remotely piloted aircraft systems (drones) and facial recognition. “The public sector should be ambitious in harnessing innovation to improve services while preserving public trust and accountability by explaining the case for use of these new capabilities.” He stressed that football disorder, such as that seen when Rangers played Celtic in the Scottish Cup quarter-final in March, where rival fans clashed after a pitch invasion, “cannot continue to be tolerated”. Mr Naylor branded the incident “deeply concerning” and cited severe failures in planning and matchday safety. Warning of the “increasing threat of violence and disorder”, he said football clubs themselves, their governing bodies, local authorities and supporter groups must all “share responsibility with policing” in tackling the problem. He suggested an enhanced risk assessment process be put in place, along with mandatory multi-agency planning exercises for high-risk matches, stronger stewarding arrangements, improved segregation of rival supporters and “consistent use of evidence-led sanctions against those involved in violence or disorder”. Mr Naylor said: “Elements such
Aug 20, 2026 · via news.stv.tv
Why Human Informants Still Matter in the Age of AI Surveillance The most frightening thing about surveillance is not always the camera on the wall or the intelligence officer behind a desk. Sometimes it is the colleague who repeats your private joke, the neighbour who watches who visits your home, or the friend who suddenly asks too many careful questions. Recent research on Iran has examined the everyday culture of informing, known in Persian as Zirabzani or Mokhberi. However, this phenomenon is not uniquely Iranian. Many political systems, especially authoritarian ones, survive not only by watching citizens from above but also by encouraging citizens to watch one another. Although every society has its own language for those who report on others, the phenomenon is remarkably familiar across cultures. In Iran, they are known as Zirabzan. Across much of the Arab world, the term Mukhbir immediately evokes the image of a state informant. In Türkiye, people speak of an İspiyoncu, while in Russia the deeply pejorative Stukach recalls both Soviet-era denunciations and contemporary political informing. In China, gàomìzhě (告密者) and gàomì (告密) refer to secret informers and the act of informing itself, terms shaped by decades of political campaigns and continuing systems of social monitoring. The names differ, but they all point to the same underlying social reality: ordinary citizens who become intermediaries between society and the state. This is the part of surveillance we often miss. Public debate is now dominated by artificial intelligence, facial recognition and digital monitoring. These technologies matter. But they work best when they are combined with something older and more intimate: fear inside society itself. Informant cultures emerge when people begin to believe that ordinary relationships are politically risky. A conversation at work, a comment in class, a joke at dinner, or a post on
Aug 20, 2026 · via smallwarsjournal.com
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Aug 20, 2026 · via youtube.com
Susanne Seitz is CEO of Buildings Smart Infrastructure at Siemens. Opinions are the author’s own. Walk through almost any city in the world — from Madrid and Singapore to Chicago — and you will notice something remarkable: the vast majority of the buildings around us today will still be standing 25 years from now. That's both our industry's greatest challenge and one of its biggest opportunities. While technology continues to evolve, most existing buildings have yet to begin their digital transformation. Only 10-15% of medium-sized buildings and fewer than 5% of smaller buildings have a building management system installed. The opportunity before us isn't simply about creating smarter new buildings — it’s about transforming the millions of buildings that already exist. But no one organization can achieve that alone. The next competitive advantage in buildings won't come from technology alone — it will be the strength of the partner ecosystem behind it, anchored by the professionals who manage the buildings’ systems. If we're serious about creating buildings that are more intelligent, more efficient and more resilient, partnerships are no longer a nice-to-have. They are fundamental to how we will modernize the built environment and deliver meaningful outcomes for customers. Why partnerships matter now more than ever The conversation around buildings has changed. Customers are no longer asking for individual technologies — they are asking for solutions to increasingly complex business challenges. They want to reduce energy consumption while improving occupant comfort. They need to meet ambitious sustainability targets, manage aging infrastructure, address workforce shortages and prepare for a future where AI and automation play a much greater role in building operations. These aren't challenges that can be solved through technology alone. They require collaboration between technology providers, systems integrators, facilities managers and other partners who understand both the technology and
Aug 20, 2026 · via facilitiesdive.com
Facial Recognition Technology Coming into Wider Use in Japan Tokyo, Aug. 20 (Jiji Press)--Services using facial recognition technology are expanding in Japan, allowing, for example, touchless or ticketless entry through train station gates and payments at shops without the need to take out a wallet or a credit card. Expectations are growing that the evolution of artificial intelligence will improve accuracy of facial recognition systems and help reduce fraud. Meanwhile, concerns about privacy violations persist, making thorough user information management essential. Trial Holdings Inc., which runs discount stores and other operations, has introduced a payment service using NEC Corp.'s facial recognition technology at 15 stores in Tokyo and Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan. Advance registration allows customers to shop simply by scanning goods at the self-checkout counter without using cash or smartphone payment services. People can watch professional baseball games of the Yomiuri Giants at Tokyo Dome by entering the stadium through a Panasonic Connect Co. facial recognition system after obtaining an ID and pay at some shops without cash or credit cards. Hitachi Ltd. and Tobu Railway Co. have installed facial recognition train ticket gates at Ikebukuro Station on the railway operator's Tojo Line and other stations. In the future, the technology is expected to become available for payments at commercial facilities, including nearby convenience stores. (2026/08/20-17:28)
Aug 20, 2026 · via jen.jiji.com
- August 20, 2026 Loading Between 2024 and 2026, Manatee County Sheriff’s Office deputies used license plate recognition cameras, or license plate readers, to arrest or recover 191 individuals. Not only are criminal suspects identified through the use of the technology, missing children and senior citizens with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease have been located using license plate readers. Flock is a brand name, and MCSO has 79 Flock cameras installed across the county. Including other brands, MCSO uses 134 license plate readers. Distrust of Flock cameras has been growing over the past year or two, but Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells said his department has been using license plate readers for nearly six years. “There’s a lot of misinformation out there about license plate readers and how they’re being used,” Wells said. “The only thing that they’re taking a picture of is your vehicle and your license plate. We can’t tell who’s driving. You hear about facial recognition. That’s a lie.” The cameras read thousands of license plate numbers every day. Sheriff’s deputies are going into the system with a purpose. Wells used the example of a burglary. If a detective is given a vehicle description, he or she can search for that vehicle, but they have to enter a reason for the search, the case number associated with the investigation and exactly what they’re looking for, such as a red Toyota, before they can even enter the system. The system is audited every two weeks to ensure those procedures are being followed. The information is also deleted every 30 days. “In a perfect world, if everybody understood (how and why his office uses license plate readers), we could hold the information up to a year with the hopes that if we had a crime that maybe that vehicle was
Aug 20, 2026 · via yourobserver.com
9M Images Exposed by Facial Recognition Platform 9,042,977 images totaling 450.2 gigabytes of data were exposed in a public database with no password protection or encryption. Facial images of adults, teenagers and children were accessible. These included: - Profile pictures - Screenshots - Physical photographs The files belonged to ClarityCheck, a digital investigation service leveraging reverse image search for OSINT-based identity verification. Upon discovery of the exposed database, Cybersecurity Researcher Jeremiah Fowler reached out with a responsible disclosure notice. The organization expressed gratitude for the notice and the database was restricted from public access. This could be a considerable privacy concern. As risks of impersonation grow more complex, especially with the proliferation of AI deepfakes, the exposure of facial imagery on such a wide scale could have posed a cyber threat. The exposure of children's faces could be especially concerning, as recent events have shown cybercriminals creating AI-generated child abuse images (CSAM) of students in order to extort schools. However, as Fowler points out there is no evidence any malicious actor accessed the database nor exploited its contents, all discussions of possible ramifications are purely hypothetical. Nevertheless, in the event such information was placed into the hands of malicious actors, the consequences of such a leak could be significant. Looking for a reprint of this article? From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!
Aug 20, 2026 · via securitymagazine.com
To find out, I asked Luuk Spreeuwers, a researcher in biometrics and facial recognition at the University of Twente. How does facial recognition work? To understand how facial recognition works, Luuk first distinguishes between two methods: verification and identification. Your phone uses verification. The system already knows who you are supposed to be: the owner of the phone. Luckily, your phone doesn’t have to search through millions of faces to find yours. It only needs to determine whether the face in front of the camera matches that of the owner. To do this, the system compares features from the face in front of the camera with previously stored features from one specific person. Luuk calls this a 1:1 comparison. The result is either a match or a non-match. Identification works differently. In this case, the system doesn’t yet know who the person in front of the camera is and is trying to find out. It compares the features of one face with those of multiple people stored in its database. Luuk calls this a 1:N comparison. The system then looks for the best match or concludes that there is no match. So, the main difference lies in the question the system is trying to answer. Verification asks, ‘Are you this person?’, while identification asks, ‘Who are you?’ You can see a similar principle to verification at automated passport control. There, the system can compare features from a live camera image with features from the passport photo stored on the chip in your passport. But what does facial recognition actually look at? Your phone doesn’t simply look at your eye colour or the distance between your nose and mouth. Modern facial recognition systems use deep learning, a form of artificial intelligence, to extract distinctive features from a face. ‘These systems are
Aug 20, 2026 · via utwente.nl
Live facial recognition technology could be used to stop banned football supporters attending matches in Scotland following the violent disorder that marred Rangers' Scottish Cup clash with Celtic in March. Craig Naylor, who has held the post since 2022, said such technology could be used as part of efforts to stop banned individuals from attending matches. His comments came as he argued that using both facial recognition technology and drones, with "appropriate safeguards" in place, could "help reduce the threats posed to the public from high-risk sex offenders, organised crime groups, violent offenders and others whose activities cause significant harm to communities". He stressed that football disorder, such as that seen when Rangers played Celtic in the Scottish Cup quarter-final in March, where rival fans clashed after a pitch invasion, "cannot continue to be tolerated". His comments came in his latest annual report, which suggested that restricting the number of supporters allowed to attend games, applying football banning orders with "more vigour" and "modern technologies such as facial recognition to prevent the attendance of banned individuals should all be explored". He described the Old Firm clash in March as being a "watershed moment for Scottish football". Naylor stated: "The scenes witnessed, including pitch incursions, assaults, the use of pyrotechnics and threats to public safety, were unacceptable and caused injuries to those involved. "A situation that cannot continue to be tolerated." While he stressed that "responsibility for violent and disorderly behaviour rests unequivocally with those individuals who chose to engage in it", the inspector added that there is a "clear need for a more joined-up and intelligence-led approach to the management of high-risk football fixtures". Warning of the "increasing threat of violence and disorder", he said clubs, governing bodies, local authorities and supporter groups must all share responsibility with policing in
Aug 20, 2026 · via glasgowtimes.co.uk
Use facial recognition to stop football violence, says police chief inspector A number of police forces in England use Live Facial Recognition (LFR), but Police Scotland does not Police Scotland should use facial recognition technology to stop football violence, the chief inspector has said. Craig Naylor, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of the Constabulary in Scotland, has told the Scottish Government that drones and facial recognition could “reduce the threats posed to the public from high-risk sex offenders, organised crime groups, violent offenders and others whose activities cause significant harm to communities”. A number of police forces in England use Live Facial Recognition (LFR), but Police Scotland does not. It comes after high-profile disorder at football games in Scotland last season, including pitch invasions at the Old Firm and Celtic’s title-deciding match against Hearts. Mr Naylor said “the challenge” for public sector leaders was “not whether to adopt these technologies, but how quickly they can do so safely, ethically and effectively”. He said: “Police and law enforcement partners must seek to exploit, with appropriate safeguards in place, advancements in operational technology such as remotely piloted aircraft systems (drones) and facial recognition. “The public sector should be ambitious in harnessing innovation to improve services while preserving public trust and accountability by explaining the case for use of these new capabilities.” Mr Naylor described the recent football violence and related disorder witnessed in Scotland as “a situation that cannot continue to be tolerated”. He said the increasing threat, especially outside football grounds, was likely to increase the number of police officers being deployed to future games. This means less police officers are available in other areas and increases the cost of policing through overtime or other deferred costs. He said football clubs, governing bodies, local authorities and supporter groups must share responsibility with
Aug 20, 2026 · via scotsman.com
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Aug 20, 2026 · via youtube.com
U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Ryan Gaskins, assigned to the 36th Airlift Squadron, resource advisor and loadmaster, poses with a signed "Installation Sashimono" at Yokota Air Base, Japan, Aug. 14, 2026. Gaskins was selected as the squadron's Samurai Spotlight honoree, recognized for supporting C-130J operations, delivering 274 tons of humanitarian relief supplies to Saipan following Super Typhoon Sinlaku, and providing 11 hours of search-and-rescue coverage alongside the U.S. Coast Guard. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Tallon Bratton)
| Date Taken: | 08.14.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 08.19.2026 22:06 |
| Photo ID: | 9878724 |
| VIRIN: | 260814-F-TU760-1001 |
| Resolution: | 5869x3905 |
| Size: | 4.71 MB |
| Location: | YOKOTA AIR BASE, TOKYO, JP |
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This work, Samurai Spotlight: SrA Ryan Gaskins [Image 3 of 3], by SrA Tallon Bratton, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
Aug 20, 2026 · via dvidshub.net
Abstract Vision transformers (ViTs) process images as sequences of embedded tokens, yet in existing architectures, tokenization is performed entirely in the digital domain, downstream of image capture. This separation increases energy cost and prevents token formation from occurring where visual information is physically generated. Here we introduce a physical tokenizer that performs analogue light-to-token conversion directly at the sensor level for ViTs. The prototype integrates a 32 × 32 photosensitive memory array of monolayer MoS2 floating-gate phototransistors with peripheral addressing circuitry, enabling optical images to be stored as non-volatile states and selectively combined into patch embeddings in situ, thereby eliminating separate sensing, patch division and patch embedding stages. When deployed in a standard ViT pipeline, the physical tokenizer achieves software-comparable accuracy on CIFAR-10 while reducing energy consumption by 14.3-fold relative to a digital tokenizer. These results establish physical tokenization as an energy-efficient and scalable hardware foundation for edge-intelligent, data-intensive vision systems. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access options Subscribe to this journal Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles $119.00 per year only $9.92 per issue Buy this article - Purchase on SpringerLink - Instant access to the full article PDF. USD 39.95 Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout Similar content being viewed by others Subjects Data availability The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper. Code availability The code supporting the findings of this study is available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request. References - Dosovitskiy, A. et al. An image is worth 16 × 16 words: transformers for image recognition at scale. In Proc. International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR, 2021). - Liu, Z. et al. Swin
Aug 20, 2026 · via nature.com
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Aug 20, 2026 · via youtube.com
UK ICO finds police facial recognition use mostly compliant with data regulations The UK Information Commissioner’s Office says police are using facial recognition in ways that meet their regulatory compliance obligations, for the most part. Their compliance rate is higher with live facial recognition than with retrospective or forensic applications, however, according to the ICO’s findings from audits of five forces in England and Wales. A blog post by Deputy Commissioner for Regulatory Policy Emily Keaney makes the case for strong data protection governance as a pillar of public trust in facial recognition, and therefore suggests police using the technology draw on the audit findings to improve theirs. The ICO makes 107 recommendations overall related to compliance and best practices. The forces accepted all of the recommendations, at least in part, and the regulator gives the police good marks for participating in and cooperating with the audits. Keaney also writes that Home Office and the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) told the ICO they are dealing with the demographic differentials found by the National Physics Lab in the legacy Cognitec algorithm released in 2020 with additional staff training, oversight reporting, equality impact assessments and plans to replace the algorithm, presumably to a newer release. In the meantime, Home Office held consultations on the introduction of a legal framework for police use of facial recognition. The ICO participated, calling for greater specificity in guidance for law enforcement. The data protection authority is also contributing guidance for businesses, government bodies and the public to help nurture trust in police use of face biometrics. Scotland and Northern Ireland are also advancing toward more use of facial recognition by police, and the ICO says its recommendations hold for those countries as well. Greater Manchester Police need PND policy Overall, the ICO sees some forces
Aug 20, 2026 · via biometricupdate.com
Meet VSD’s Editorial Advisory Board: Spotlight on Daniel Lau, Ph.D., IEEE Fellow and Pioneer in Machine Vision Innovation Over the next several months, Vision Systems Design will feature profiles of members of its editorial advisory board. We’ll kick off this series with Daniel Lau, Ph.D., a distinguished expert in machine vision and image processing whose career has spanned signal processing, digital halftoning, cutting-edge 3D imaging, and the integration of AI into practical engineering solutions. From his formative education at Purdue University and the University of Delaware to his pioneering research and entrepreneurial ventures, he has consistently pushed the boundaries of imaging technology. Dr. Lau is the Databeam Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, the university’s director of graduate studies, and a certified professional engineer. His work spans diverse applications, including fingerprint scanning, dairy-industry automation, pipeline inspection, and dental imaging. In 2026, Dr. Lau was elevated to IEEE Fellow in recognition of his contributions to digital printing and 3D imaging. He continues to lead innovative research exploring AI-driven world models for complex process recognition. His collaborative leadership style, enthusiasm for authentic community engagement, and forward-looking approach to AI make him a vital voice in the evolving field of machine vision. To learn more about Dr. Lau and his approach to innovation, I sent him a series of questions. I hope you enjoy this Q&A as much as I do. Editor’s note: The following Q&A may have been edited for style. Vision Systems Design (VSD): Can you share how your career path led you to specialize in machine vision and image processing? Daniel Lau, Ph.D. (DL): Two classes at Purdue, really. I took signal processing from Neal Gallagher, who's a legend in the field, and I was hooked. Then I took image processing from Jan
Aug 19, 2026 · via vision-systems.com
ClarityCheck’s exposed biometric databases present major identity theft, fraud risk Consider where your face might be found. Social media, probably. Maybe internet search. It doesn’t naturally occur to anyone that their face may be stored in a publicly exposed database with no security safeguards to speak of. Unencrypted and freely available, your face could be nicked from that database, paired with fake data and used for identity fraud. Cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler recently happened upon just such a database. According to what he shared with ExpressVPN, it contained 9,042,977 image files totaling 450.2 GB of data, housing the facial biometrics of adults, teens, and children in folders labeled “faces” and “profiles.” “These included what appeared to be profile images, screenshots, and physical photographs that appeared to have been uploaded for reverse image searches or other identity verification purposes,” Fowler says. “Upon further research, I was able to determine that the files belonged to a U.S.-registered company called ClarityCheck.” Treat biometrics with care they warrant: Fowler ClarityCheck offers reverse phone, email, image and vehicle lookup services. Its website describes “an online digital investigation service that uses reverse image search technology and claims to help users identify individuals, detect catfishing, investigate suspicious online profiles, and perform OSINT-based identity verification.” In the case of a service like ClarityCheck, Fowler says, “the marketed purpose of the platform is the re-identification of individuals by allowing users (anonymous and registered) to upload an image of a person and attempting to connect that image to publicly available information, online profiles, or other identifying records.” For ClarityCheck, a side effect was the mass retention of biometric data that, it turned out, anyone could steal. “I imply no wrongdoing by ClarityCheck, Clarity Check Ltd., or any related entities,” Fowler says. “I do not claim that user data was actively
Aug 19, 2026 · via biometricupdate.com
Police watchdog calls for live facial recognition to tackle football disorder The head of the Scottish police watchdog is calling for the introduction of live facial recognition technology and drones to help combat football-related disorder. HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) Craig Naylor has used the publication of his annual report to highlight the need for better use of technology to help fight crime. Naylor described recent football violence, like the disorder between Celtic and Rangers fans at Ibrox in March, as "a situation that cannot continue to be tolerated." He also said the increasing violence in Scotland outside football grounds was likely to require more police deployments. Naylor said: "Elements such as restricting the number of fans allowed to attend matches, banning orders with more rigor, requirements to use modern technologies such as facial recognition to prevent the attendance of banned individuals should all be explored and enacted to ensure that this behaviour is stopped." Live facial recognition technology has been used by police forces at football matches in England. But its deployment remains controversial amid concerns over privacy, civil liberties and the potential for errors in identification. The technology has never been used by Police Scotland but the force has been engaged in a public consultation on its deployment. The report comes after disorder at several games towards the end of last season's Scottish Premiership. This Included high-profile matches between Celtic and Rangers in the Scottish Cup in March and the title decider between Celtic and Hearts in May. Later that day two police officers were seriously injured and 14 arrests were made during trouble in Glasgow city centre as Celtic supporters celebrated the club's Premiership win. Police Scotland's Assistant Chief Constable Tim Mairs said: "We have a duty to use new technologies to safeguard our
Aug 19, 2026 · via bbc.com
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Aug 19, 2026 · via youtube.com