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Technology
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Write comment (95 Comments)Aerial imagery is a common asset in military matters, but 3D maps can be difficult to collect on short notice without specialized equipment. This new photogrammetry technique from the Army Corps of Engineers, however, can make accurate 3D maps from ordinary aerial footage in just minutes.
Photogrammetry is the process of comparing multiple photos of the same location or item to produce a 3D map of it. Ita well-known method but in some cases is still reliable on human intelligence to determine, for instance, which frames of a video should be used to produce the best results.
Ricky Massaro from the ArmyGeospatial Research Laboratory in Virginia has mitigated that problem and produced a highly efficient photogrammetric method that can turn aerial imagery into accurate 3D surface maps in near real-time without any human oversight.
This image shows the depth map as color & red being higher. It was created from combining multiple 2D images.
The system was tested by the 101st Airborne, which flew a drone over Fort Campbell in Kentucky and mapped a mock city used for training exercises. It was also deployed in Iraq for non-combat purposes. So this isn&t stuck in a lab somewhere — itbeen put to work, and is now being publicized because the patent filing is in and the Army is now negotiating to commercialize the system.
&Whether itfor soldiers or farmers, this tech delivers usable terrain and intelligence products fast,& said Quinton King, a manager at TechLink, the Defense Departmentcommercial tech transfer organization. &And I&m happy to help companies learn how they can leverage Dr. Massarowork for their own products or applications.&
The real-time photogrammetry wouldn&t replace lidar or ground-based mapping systems, but act in concert with them. Being able to produce accurate depth from ordinary aerial imagery, and without having to send tons of data to a central location or involve human experts, makes it adaptable to a variety of situations. If you&re curious about the specifics, you can check out the patent application here.
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Read more: Army photogrammetry technique makes 3D aerial maps in minutes
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If you've already signed up for the new Disney Plus streaming service, then you may have noticed older episodes of The Simpsons are shown in the wrong aspect ratio. Disney now says a fix is on the way – but it won't arrive until next year.
It's not that the episodes are unwatchable, but the forcing of the modern 16:9 widescreen look on the classic
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Read more: Disney Plus will fix the aspect ratio on The Simpsons in 2020
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Thousands of Google Chrome users have been left without service after the company rolled out a new power-saving feature that instead left thousands of users staring at a blank screen.
As ZDNet explains, the problem was traced back to a feature called 'WebContents Occlusion', which suspends Chrome tabs when you move another window on top of the
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Write comment (92 Comments)The maker of Magic: The Gathering has confirmed that a security lapse exposed the data on hundreds of thousands of game players.
The gamedeveloper, the Washington-based Wizards of the Coast, left a database backup file in a public Amazon Web Services storage bucket. The database file contained user account information for the gameonline arena. But there was no password on the storage bucket, allowing anyone to access the files inside.
The bucket is not believed to have been exposed for long — since around early-September — but it was long enough for U.K. cybersecurity firm Fidus Information Security to find the database.
A review of the database file showed there were 452,634 players& information, including about 470 email addresses associated with Wizards& staff. The database included player names and usernames, email addresses, and the date and time of the accountcreation. The database also had user passwords, which were hashed and salted, making it difficult but not impossible to unscramble.
None of the data was encrypted. The accounts date back to at least 2012, according to our review of the data, but some of the more recent entries date back to mid-2018.
A formatted version of the database backup file, redacted, containing 452,000 user records. (Image: TechCrunch)
Fidus reached out to Wizards of the Coast but did not hear back. It was only after TechCrunch reached out that the game maker pulled the storage bucket offline.
Bruce Dugan, a spokesperson for the game developer, told TechCrunch in a statement: &We learned that a database file from a decommissioned website had inadvertently been made accessible outside the company.&
&We removed the database file from our server and commenced an investigation to determine the scope of the incident,& he said. &We believe that this was an isolated incident and we have no reason to believe that any malicious use has been made of the data,& but the spokesperson did not provide any evidence for this claim.
&However, in an abundance of caution, we are notifying players whose information was contained in the database and requiring them to reset their passwords on our current system,& he said.
Harriet Lester, Fidus& director of research and development, said it was &surprising in this day and age that misconfigurations and lack of basic security hygiene still exist on this scale, especially when referring to such large companies with a userbase of over 450,000 accounts.&
&Our research team work continuously, looking for misconfigurations such as this to alert companies as soon as possible to avoid the data falling into the wrong hands. Itour small way of helping make the internet a safer place,& she told TechCrunch.
The game maker said it informed the U.K. data protection authorities about the exposure, in line with breach notification rules under EuropeGDPR regulations. The U.K.Information CommissionerOffice did not immediately return an email to confirm the disclosure.
Companies can be fined up to 4% of their annual turnover for GDPR violations.
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Read more: ‘Magic: The Gathering’ game maker exposed 452,000 players’ account data
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50% off all Sky TV packages including Sky Cinema and Sky Sports? It must almost be Black Friday time because these Sky TV deals are incredible!
Sky's latest offer is on multiple specific bundles as well as build your own bundle options , so you could customise a base bundle if you wanted to. The great thing about this Black Friday deal is that
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Read more: Save up to £567 today with these Black Friday Sky TV deals with Sports, Cinema and more
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