Researchers studying the level of detail in modern digital photographs were able to pick out the tiny reflections of faces hidden in the eyes of the subject and accurately identify them.
On a subway train in the middle of July, two men walk onto a crowded train car in black trenchcoats buttoned up to their necks. Would a surveillance camera notice anything suspicious? Other passengers do.
For cell phone users, and that includes most everyone these days, there are myriad choices in plans beyond the hundreds of phones themselves. Anytime minutes. Off-peak minutes. Domestic roaming charges. International roaming charges. Minutes overage fees. Text messaging plans. Data plans. Limits and slowdowns on data plans.
Smart cards, like other steps along technology’s ever-evolving pathway, biometrics and megapixel cameras to name two others, share ingrained challenges. New stuff is often more expensive than existing stuff. Bring something new in and, often, you have to upgrade other gear that is part of the total system to make it all work together. Then there are design, installation, maintenance and training costs as something new comes through the door.
Thanks, in part, to near field communication (NFC) chips embedded in smartphones, the door has opened for college students and staff to unlock and lock their campus doors using personal smartphones.
