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Net Work Alan Winstanley This month our Net Work column examines advances in AI-powered image processing and raises the prospect of ‘face payments. There’s space news, and advice about dealing with old British paper banknotes. A rtificial intelligence is increasingly being used to help automate complex or highvolume tasks, or to add advanced functionality to something by interpreting and processing streaming data. A taste of things to come was offered by ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras at least 25 years ago; number-plate-recognition cameras suddenly arrived that extracted data from images of car license plates. Today, ANPR cameras enable London authorities to penalise motorists for driving the wrong type of car in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the police can be alerted when suspect vehicles trigger cameras, or they can check ANPR recorded data afterwards when searching for evidence of a crime. More than 20 years ago, Logitech’s new Face Track feature, licensed from a US tech startup, could magically centre your face automatically in a webcam picture and track it as you moved around. This was a great idea for video calling, although Logitech inexplicably removed it from the drivers of many webcams a few years ago. They now offer ‘RightSight’ on pricier video conferencing cameras which they say ‘uses AI to detect people and frame people to create more immersive meeting experiences.’ Digital cameras also started to recognise a smile and capture a perfectly timed snapshot and, for fun, webcams and smartphones learnt how to superimpose cartoon effects on a subject’s facial features. Even cheap IP security cameras can record or sound an alarm, not always very accurately, when human-shaped objects enter the scene. Facebook and Amazon started using AI to tag faces in images (automatically, to begin with, Google Street View uses AI to blur licence plates and until it was finally dis- faces – most of them anyway. abled by default) and group them into photo galleries, sorted Face recognition technology by date, location or ‘face’ or whatev- Another example of AI that has been er users wished. Overwhelmed by the trialled for decades is face recognisheer volume of its material, Facebook tion technology (FRT). However, due now relies on AI systems to help mod- to the surrounding privacy issues in erate its contents. Google Street View Britain, the uptake of FRT has been AI detects car licence plates and faces very restricted. In July, it was reportand blurs them out of every image, a ed that FRT picked out the face of a feat that no amount of human opera- wanted offender in thronging crowds tors could ever achieve. More recently, near Buckingham Palace. The vilin Britain it was found that AI systems lain triggered a live facial recognition made a better job of diagnosing breast (LFR) mugshot on the Scotland Yard cancer from mammograms than human database, and he was quickly arrestconsultants generally did. Advances in ed. According to the Comparitech AI are reaching into surgery, providing website, London is in the top 10 most pre-op data for surgeons or assisting in surveilled cities outside of China – see: https://bit.ly/pe-oct23-cctv – the others robotic medical procedures. 1552 hand-held plastic enclosures Learn more: hammfg.com/1552 uksales<at>hammfg.com • 01256 812812 10 Practical Electronics | October | 2023 value their privacy more would doubtless recoil from the suggestion. There’s an app for that Countless gadgets and appliances now depend on network or Bluetooth connectivity, and here at home I don’t have to look far for examples: my ‘smart’ bathroom scales made by Etekcity will ‘echo’ signals around one’s body mass and send to my tablet no less than Street trials in London of facial recognition scanners 16 rather depressing stastirred up some controversy over privacy last year. tistics. Online guidance include Moscow, Singapore and Baghsourced from the American College of dad. Campaign group Big Brother Watch Cardiology then pops up, in an effort to is against using FRT in public, and for give the Chinese app some credibility, now it seems that FRT will be confined though of course it’s no substitute for to scanning for miscreants at specific a personal medical assessment. places or events. Many IoT devices can utilise AI At the other end of the scale, in China to help manage your home, such as the use of facial recognition payment TP-Link’s Tapo and Kasa ranges, and (FRP) to pay for things is said to be hands-free voice control can be a boon. very widespread. In a report by Hanna Using ‘skills’ on Amazon or Google Hua for Retail Week, she writes that smart speakers is an easy way of conwhen she re-visited China, she found trolling sockets or lights using voice facial recognition everywhere and one commands, an idea that we’ve quickly smile at an FRP scanner was all it took become used to. Smart speakers and to complete a store transaction. Few displays now appear in many homes, credit card terminals or Apple Pay sys- and Amazon recently launched the tems were seen, so no mobile device latest version of their smart speaker, was needed to ‘pay by face’. The scan- called the Echo Pop. It’s priced at a ner links to an e-wallet managed by hefty £45, although I snapped one up Ali Pay or WeChatPay, which in turn for an introductory price of just £18. links to a bank account. Any e-wallet It works very well and, unlike other credit balances earn interest (PayPal, brands, is guaranteed to be updated take note). There are said to be half a by Amazon for four more years once billion users of FRP in China, and face sales are discontinued. ID systems are also routinely used for Having ‘apps for everything’ suits age verification or at police stations, today’s Internet generation, but somebanks and railway stations. Today’s thing that always attracts my ire are Internet generation would probably online posts from users who exthink FRP is a great idea, but those who claim that apps are ‘dead easy’ and ‘Pay by face’ uses facial recognition scanners linked to an e-wallet, and is commonplace in China. (China Global TV/ YouTube) Practical Electronics | October | 2023 Echo Pop is Amazon’s latest version of their smart speaker. Watch out for Black Friday sales later this year. ‘anyone can use them’. As if to rub it in, they add that ‘no-one ever uses cash’ anymore because everyone uses contactless payments instead. None of this is true when older or less welloff folks are concerned: they may not have the budget, confidence, dexterity or eyesight to run a pricey smartphone full of apps, or even if they have, they may be happy with the status quo and not want to re-learn ways of doing things that have worked perfectly well for decades. In another nudge towards going cashless, it’s claimed that some businesses are being deterred from handling or storing cash, otherwise their insurance premiums and bank charges become unaffordable. By adopting digital transactions instead, one counterargument goes, the state and financial institutions could track and ultimately control all our activity. We are not there yet, but these things tend to sneak up on us without anyone noticing until it’s too late. The digital Britcoin Readers might have noticed that I’ve always steered completely clear of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoins (BTC), Ether (ETH) and the like, partly because grappling with these digital currencies goes beyond the remit of my old accountancy qualification. Some 10% of UK adults hold or have held cryptoassets, according to HM Revenue & Customs. Using cryptocurrencies is for the technically savvy (and wary) and involves engaging with privately run, volatile high-risk transactions that are ‘unbacked’, meaning there are no financial or physical assets behind them, let alone any form of stress-testing or regulation. A recent cross-party UK Government committee stated that, given their price volatility and the risk of losses, trading in ‘unbacked’ crypto more closely 11 American reader had never heard of, and the Federal Reserve was steering well clear of too. Out of interest, America’s National Cotton Council reports that US paper currency is actually printed on 75% cotton and 25% linen and there are 454 bills in a pound (weight, or 0.454kg) An old Sterling note can always be cashed in at the Bank of currency. of England – even a 10-shilling pre-decimal specimen. British bank notes are efThe Bank will only give you 50p for it, but you could easily fectively cast-iron IOUs that get ten times that on eBay. However, that’s not such a carry the statement ‘I promise great deal when you realise 10 shillings in 1969, the year to pay the bearer on demand this note was withdrawn, was worth the equivalent of £7 the sum of...’ Some UK banks in today’s money: https://bit.ly/pe-oct23-inf will still accept old, withresembles gambling than a financial drawn paper notes and pay them into service, and should be regulated as your account, otherwise they can only such. However, the government disa- be cashed in at the Bank of England in grees, and intends to ‘tame’ retail crypto London (the position in Scotland diftransactions for mainstream use by fers), which guarantees to pay against regulating them as financial services. any bank notes ever circulated. The Bank For now, the Bank of England and of England offers a mail-in postal form HM Treasury are looking at creating a at: https://bit.ly/pe-oct23-boe Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) As it happens, I had a decent bundle or a ‘digital pound’. It is known that of old £20 and £10 bank notes stashed Britain’s current Prime Minister Rishi away, but I’d forgotten that paper notes Sunak is a ‘Treasury man’ and is all in had been withdrawn. My travails startfavour of having a digital currency, ed by visiting my bank 25 miles away, perhaps even a ‘Britcoin’. The digital because all my local branches had dispound would see consumers owning appeared, a malaise blamed on the a ‘digital wallet’ into which digital uptake of online banking. Even in this currency could be paid from a bank large branch, no human ‘teller’ service account. The Bank of England claims was available – no hope paying the that it would exist alongside, and be cash in over the counter, then. The easily exchangeable with, cash and nearest (and only) counter service was bank deposits. in a major city branch, 40 miles away. Other examples of digital wallets are payments systems managed by PayPal, Google Pay and Apple Pay; consumers link their digital wallets to their current (cheque) accounts, as well as their debit and credit cards. The payment system then manages the transaction, charging the vendor (merchant) a small percentage fee. In a 2022 YouGov survey for the Bank of England, 22% of SMEs (small-medium enterprises) accepted PayPal, but only 3% cited PayPal as a preferred payment method, while 7% still preferred cash! Google Pay works well on a mobile phone and I like the fact that Google Pay and Apple Pay withhold your charge card number from the merchant. The Bank of England is now mulling over the idea of creating a regulated UK digital currency ‘in due course’, so presumably it won’t happen any time soon. Fortunately, a helpful banking floor worker pointed me to a paying-in machine instead, which rustled through the old £20s with impressive speed, with my debit card being used to credit my account instantly. Cheques can be scanned and paid in automatically using another machine, though the last time I tried one, it swallowed a substantial cheque before losing it and rebooting into Windows XP. I then found that the machine was incompatible with my old £10 notes. I could either take them to London and queue up at the Bank of England, or I could risk posting them off with a form and photo ID, which is what I’ve done. Assuming all goes well, the Bank states that it may take ‘at least 90 days’ to swap my wad of paper £10 notes for real money. That’s progress for you! Clearly, cash is becoming anathema to all parts of the financial sector, including HM Treasury and tax authorities everywhere. Pushing back against this relentless drive towards digital currency and cashless transactions, the UK TV news channel GB News recently launched an online e-petition headed ‘Don’t Kill Cash’, claiming that five million people still rely on it, adding that there are ‘strong vested interests pushing for cash to be replaced by debit and credit cards’. They hoped to reach 100,000 signatures, the number needed for the UK Parliament to consider debating it. Remarkably, it has already reached Cashing in again Meanwhile, back on the subject of good old-fashioned cash, some UK readers might like to be reminded that old paper bank notes are no longer legal tender, having been replaced by polymer (plastic) notes from 2016, something that an 12 Not lost in space – the Voyager 2 spacecraft, seen here being worked on by NASA engineers in 1977, has travelled more than 12 billion miles from Earth. (NASA/ JPL-Caltech) Practical Electronics | October | 2023 308,000 signatures, and supporters can add their own name at: https://bit.ly/pe-oct23-cash Incidentally, any British citizen can start a petition using the process found at: https://petition.parliament.uk/help Long-distance Voyager NASA technicians have re-established contact with Voyager 2, the plucky and venerable interstellar satellite that is now 46 years old. Launched in 1977, Voyager 2’s mission was to fly by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune before heading out into interstellar space. It now takes 36 hours for signals to reach Voyager 2 and the answer to then return but, after a worryingly extended period of radio silence, the spacecraft has now ‘phoned home’ and is working normally once again. Should it ever encounter alien life, Voyager carries a 12-inch gold-plated phonograph disk containing sounds and images portraying life and culture here on Earth. The remarkable efforts of NASA to make contact with Voyager 2 are described at: https://bit.ly/pe-oct23-nasa and there’s a treat of a website dedicated to Voyager at: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov NASA has also re-made contact with the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars, after an unscheduled shut-down and safe landing (on automatic pilot) in July. Ingenuity has now flown 54 missions (see Net Work, August 2023). Some encouraging news comes from Virgin Galactic, which successfully joined the space tourism industry by taking three passengers to the edge of space in August. The three, including the first mother and daughter to fly into space, flew in the VSS Unity and travelled some 88km in a journey lasting 16 minutes. Britain’s BT has announced successful early trials of a satellite-based Internet link provided to a community on the island of Lundy (population 28) in the Bristol Channel. The Internet feed was supplied by OneWeb, the LEO satellite network operator that is expected to merge with France’s Eutelsat. A little more on Lundy here: https://bit.ly/pe-oct23-lundy At the other end of the country, Saxa Vord, the UK’s most northerly spaceport, is gearing up for its first vertical rocket launch later this year, subject to licensing approvals. Demand for launch slots far exceeds global supply, I learned, but as part of its steep learning curve the Saxa Vord team cheerfully exclaims that they won’t mind if its first rocket actually blows up. Meantime, Scotland-based Skyrora is trialling its 3D-printed rocket engine and is also doing excellent work in enthusing youngsters – tomorrow’s engineers – about space technology and engineering. China has launched Lingxi 03, a flat blade of a satellite fitted with a flexible solar array that marks the country’s BT and OneWeb, in partnership with the UK government, are now delivering high-speed, low-latency internet connectivity to Lundy Island, North Devon. next step in building its own mega constellation of LEO satellites to carry broadband and 5G services. Half a dozen test satellites were launched last year, and the Chinese satellites are also reportedly equipped to take photos and video. Outside interference Following my item last month on mains adaptors and DC connectors, my thanks go to long-time reader and friend of PE, Godfrey Manning (G4GLM) who asks: ‘Is your “Zolt” PSU linear or switching? You can usually tell immediately from the weight when you pick it up. As a Radio Amateur, I’m reluctant to buy switch-mode PSUs because of the interference to the weak signals I’m listening for (and I’m already struggling with MW/AM broadcasts for this reason). Regards (or “73” in Morse Code).’ I’ve some old linear regulated mains adaptors which weigh a ton in comparison with modern SMPSUs like the one I mentioned, due to their bulky transformer. Switched-mode ones are compact and lightweight, which also makes them cheaper and easier to ship. I can understand the issue with RFI: a few days ago, when updating our website, I noticed my mouse pointer was shaking violently on screen, as if I had a case of delirium tremens. I tried updating Windows drivers and other ideas, but an hour later I discovered the problem was actually with my graphics tablet, or rather RFI from my desk light, which was interfering with the tablet’s radio signals. By moving the lamp a foot or two (0.5m) away, the mouse pointer stopped shaking! This is a handy reminder that LED-based or other ‘simple’ low-voltage lighting often involves noisy Terrington Components • Project boxes designed and manufactured in the UK. • Many of our enclosures used on former Maplin projects. • Unique designs and sizes, including square, long and deep variaaons of our screwed lid enclosures. • Sub-miniature sizes down to 23mm x 16mm, ideal for IoT devices. MADE IN BRITAIN www.terrington-components.co.uk | sales<at>terrington-components.co.uk | Tel: 01553 636999 Practical Electronics | October | 2023 13 Skyrora tests its new 3D-printed orbital engine in readiness for commercial launches. The use of 3D printing reportedly cut production times by 66% and costs by 20%. SMPSUs. And even if it doesn’t, home wiring can act as excellent conduits for noise generated elsewhere, which could then be transmitted to a lamp or any other mains-powered device without adequate RF filtering/shielding. Last, surfing around an electronics group recently, I saw the topic of fake CE marks on Chinese goods had once again cropped up but, worryingly, some people still bought into the fallacy that a fake CE mark is an authentic logo meaning ‘China Export’, as though it’s a ‘real’ thing. I covered this topic back in the October 2021 issue: the only difference between genuine CE logos and fake ones was that the bogus ‘C’ and ‘E’ letters were closer together. Unfortunately, Google returns search results for important-looking but misleading websites that should really be taken down. Don’t be taken in – you can learn more at: https://bit.ly/pe-oct23-ce That’s all for this month’s Net Work. 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