FACE RECOGNITION software does a poor job of capturing human skin tones and expressions. Microsoft Corp., in Redmond, Wash., with its eye on three-dimensional computer gaming applications, claims in U.S. application 20040210427 that by exploiting recent discoveries in measuring skin reflectance, it can improve images by scanning a face using multiple light sources. These sources include infrared, polarized-light, and narrow-wave-band beams.

FLASH MEMORY, which is ubiquitous in portable devices and digital cameras, requires careful memory management, especially as storage capacity grows. It's also prone to failure if the same memory blocks are repeatedly used. Samsung Electronics Co., in Seoul, South Korea, says it can not only lengthen memory life but also reduce the time it takes to alter data, in U.S. application 20040210706. The job is done by moving data that is being changed to a separate memory block—and its mapping information to another sector. The process is similar to the way in which a disk drive organizes data on a hard disk so as to avoid unreliable sectors and optimize the data for speed of access.

EXISTING CRYPTOGRAPHIC methods may not be equal to the task of securely handling patients' medical records because the entire file must be decrypted for any part of it to be read, says Systems Research & Development, in Las Vegas, in U.S. application 20040210763. The company proposes splitting data into separate streams prior to encryption so that, for example, a public health researcher could look for case histories related to a specific condition without having unlimited access to a patient's files.

Source IEEE Spectrum Magazine January 2005 Issue