A new study at England’s University of Bradford uses thermal imaging cameras to detect liars.  Variations in facial temperatures during questioning can assist when determining truth from lie.  When people do not answer honestly, brain activity changes, which thermal cameras can detect.

Researchers are combining thermal imaging with a regular camera that monitors facial expressions.  Key indicators include eye movement, facial expressions, and micro-facial expressions. Microexpressions are more difficult to mask and occur during high stakes situations.  Frame-by-frame analysis of the video footage helps viewers identify emotions of surprise, fear, disgust, contempt, anger, happiness, and sadness.

Psychological analysis  combined with the thermal and facial imaging  are fed through a computerized mathematical algorithm and produces results that are 66% accurate.  Revisions continue to fine tune the process and improve the results.

Opponents fear that nervous travelers will be falsely identified as liars.  The heightened airport security could make more people anxious, which also increases body temperature.  Researchers counter that combining body heat with facial expressions and standard interviewing techniques will minimize the false positives.

The devices will be tested at an airport later this year.  Questioning techniques will be combined with the 2 camera system to help Border Control interview suspects.  Researchers hope the technology can later be expanded to police and job interviews.

This fall, NCLGISA will hold its fall symposium on October 19-21 in Asheville, NC. The Crowne Plaza resort is the place to be. Our agenda has changed slightly from the spring to offer general sessions on Wednesday and Friday while having 4 concurrent sessions all day on Thursday.

The Disrupt! theme stems from the keynote speaker, Luke Williams.  He is an author, adjunct NYU professor,  and frog Fellow who will present on innovation strategies.  Theresa Payton, former White House CIO, will follow and discuss how to Protect Your Cyberturf.  On Wednesday evening, tour the 47 exhibits during dinner.

Thursday has 5 different sets of concurrent sessions in the main hotel.   Sessions include “Infrastructure Ready for Any New Technology”, “Unified Communications”, “Motivating Employees In Tough Times”, and “Leveraging Social Media”.  Award winning NCLGISA members will present on wide-area network project and an intranet app project view.  The Demo Slam! is focusing on GIS and App Dev innovations from across the state; email us if you would like to present a project.

Friday morning will see the Demo Slam! showdown. The top 4 will compete in a general session for the top dollar prizes based on audience votes. The NC State ITS update will be followed by PTI’s Alan Shark.  Alan will speak on the New CIO & Mission Impossible before the symposium adjourns.

If you have any questions about the event, registration or hotel accommodations, please feel free to contact me directly.

For those of you fortunate enough to have attended the NCLGISA Spring Symposium, you have heard Neal Petersen’s inspiring message.   For those who were not able to attend, the video of his session will be posted on NCLGISA.org once available.  In the meantime, here is an overview of his session and his book, Journey of a Hope Merchant.

Neal was born in Cape Town, South Africa in the late 1960s with a physical disability to a working class family. His mother was a teacher, and his father had a diving business.  Neal underwent multiple surgeries to ameliorate his physical condition as a child.

Growing up on the coast, Neal used the water as part of his physical rehabilitation. He eventually became a strong swimmer and a diver.  He dreamed of becoming a yachtsman.

The laws of apartheid forced his father out of business and increased the economic hardship on his family, but Neal’s parents continued to encourage his dreams and his education.   Using his diving skills, Neal spent his free time around the yacht clubs retrieving underwater items, removing barnacles, and doing any other odd job he could find to earn money while immersing himself  in the world he wanted to join.  Because of his persistence, Neal was able to find a few yachtsmen who would teach him how to sail.

Seizing every opportunity that came his way, Neal enrolled in a Los Angeles commercial diving school after graduating high school.  After completing his education, he became a high risk, commercial diver for the oil and diamond mining industries.  He read financial planning books, invested his earnings, and commissioned a 38′ yacht.

After an injury prematurely ended his diving career, Neal pursued his ultimate goal of being a competitive, solo yachtsman.  It would take almost 10 years of hard work for Neal to complete the Around Alone and to become the first, African American to competitively sail solo around the world.

Since reaching his goal, Neal has become a motivational speaker as well as a founding member of Sequence Holdings.  He has written two books about his global adventures including No Barriers, Only Solutions. He currently lives with his wife in the Dominican Republic.

If you read his books or have the chance to hear him speak, Neal’s infectious voice will stay with you. The message is simple:  find your passion & pursue it whole heartedly without regard for what other people believe is possible.

For decades Apple has offered incentives for teachers, educators, and parents to utilize their merchandise.  Many already use iPads in the classroom.  iPad users are likely savvy with Pages for word processing, Keynote for presentations, and Numbers for calculating & graphing.  AirPrint can turn your electronic work into a hard copy. This is just the beginning of the many apps available as educational resources.

Explore the heavens with NASA apps. You can enhance your scientific exploration by accessing NASA mission data, NASA orbit tracker, and NASA streaming public television channel.  Students can view NASA photo and video archives as well as share information through Twitter & Facebook.

Do you remember SpinArt? It’s back as an app. Voted one of 2010′s best entertainment applications, you can express your creative side in or out of art class.  Plus, you can upload your creations to share with your Facebook friends.

Every higher math student needs a graphing calculator.  Apple has an app for that! The graphing calculator is a scientific calculator that allows you to plot multiple equations on the same graph at once.  Students can manipulate the graph in real time to zoom or rotate orientation and email the finished screen shots to themselves for use in other apps. The latest upgrade fixes several bugs from the original.

Language arts in Kindergarten gets a boost from Dr. Seuss! Learning your ABCs takes a hands-on, interactive approach.  Children can enjoy the book 3 ways: autoplay, read-to-me, or read-it-myself.

GarageBand lets students experience multiple instruments and a full feature recording studio.  Students can record, capture, and add sound effects to their performances.  Finished products can be uploaded to the iTunes library.