Clearview
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Law enforcement is using a facial recognition app with huge privacy issues
You may have good reason to be worried that police use of facial recognition might erode your privacy -- many departments are already using software with serious privacy concerns. The New York Times has learned that over 600 law enforcement agencies in the US and Canada have signed up in the past year to use software from little-known startup Clearview AI that can match uploaded photos (even those with imperfect angles) against over three billion images reportedly scraped from the web, including Facebook and YouTube. While it has apparently helped solve some cases, it also creates massive privacy concerns -- police could intimidate protesters, stalk people and otherwise abuse the system with few obstacles.
Are regular speakers too opaque? Check out the Clio
Does your speaker look a bit too, you know, speakery? ClearView's got an interesting solution in the form of the Clio, a new product unveiled today that it's deemed "the first invisible speaker." That title's a bit of a stretch, as you might have guessed. For starters, there's the clearly visible base, which houses the electronics, controls and inputs. The phrase refers to the transparent, curved glass at top, which resonates to produce sound waves and certainly makes the system less conspicuous than most speakers out there. So, aside from looking different, what benefits does such a technology provide? For starters, the sound waves disperse in 360 degrees, so if you put the speaker in the middle of a room, you'll be able to hear clear sound on either side. Convinced? You can pick one up right now through the company's site for $350.
Emo Labs becomes ClearView Audio, assures product unveiling at CES 2013
We haven't heard a peep from Emo Labs since it was plugging its invisible speaker technology all those years ago, but now it's back with a fresh name and a full bank account. The company has dropped its previous title to become ClearView Audio, and has secured another $1 million in funding which it will use to launch products with its Edge Motion technology. To jumpstart your memory, the reimagined speakers consist of a clear acrylic glass membrane, which produces sound when the sides are flexed by piezoelectric actuators. "Commercially ready products" are expected to be revealed at CES 2013, and we'll be interested to know whether the original strategy of integrating them into displays remains the same. Given the long period of silence, we hope to be pleasantly surprised come January, but we'll just have to wait and see hear.
NEC upgrades DLP projectors for higher res 3D in time for the premiere of Up
If you roll out this weekend to check out Disney Pixar's latest addition to the 3D film movement Up, you might be seeing it broadcast by one of NEC's new NC2500S-A projectors or an older model that has been upgraded, sending out 3D in 2K res courtesy of Texas Instruments' DLP chips. The kids might not notice a 33% improvement in resolution and brightness over previous generations that let it put the show on bigger screens than ever before, but we're sure you will. Word is Clearview's Ziegfeld Theatre is one of the first with the upgrade, so if you're close by, we all know how important choosing a theater carefully can be these days.
Clearview gets official with Infinity miPC
Last we heard from Clearview Technology it was asking its customers (or potential customers) to come up with a name for its new UMPC-like device, the XL43. While the result of that process doesn't seem to have generated much fanfare, it looks like the company is now finally nearing a release for the newly-named Infinity miPC. From the looks of it, the device has also gotten a bit of a facelift since we last saw it, but the specs appear to be identical, including a 4.3-inch touch screen, a 600MHz AU1250 processor, a 30GB hard drive, WiFi, Bluetooth, an SD card slot, and a 1.3 megapixel camera, with Windows CE 5.0 serving as the OS. You'll also apparently be able to snag an optional DMB TV tuner, and a cradle with built-in GPS but, unfortunately, there's still no word on an exact release date, or a price, for that matter.[Via GizmoLounge]
Clearview XL43 UMPC beckons a name change
We've seen plenty of instances where companies ask their loyal customers to handle some of the dirty work, but Clearview Technology is only requesting your input on something as simple as a name change. Not satisfied with the current XL43 badge, the company has cranked up a submission venue to get ideas for its official name, but aside from the semantics, how about the hardware? The Windows CE-powered UMPC will reportedly feature a 620MHz AMD AU1250 processor, 128MB of DDR2 RAM, Bluetooth, WiFi, an SD / MMC flash card slot, FM radio, 1.3-megapixel camera, integrated DVB-T TV tuner, and GPS to boot. Unfortunately, there's no timeline as to when we can expect this handtop to hit the market, but we've got all ideas that you can hasten the process if you toss your two pennies in the naming collection.[Via Pocketables]
