bookofjoe

BehindTheMedspeak: Knee analysis for personal identification

According to an April 2, 2009 Economist article, knees are unique enough to provide a means of personal identification.

The story  follows.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

Knobbly ID

Once the art of disguise would rely on a false moustache, a wig and probably a touch of make-up to foil an identification check. Today you need to beat an electronic fingerprint-analyser or a retinal scanner. It can be done with contact lenses designed to mislead eye scanners and some stick-on false fingerprints. But a new method of identification may prove much harder to evade with fake body parts. Knees, it turns out, also have unique characteristics. An X-ray of a person’s knee can show if he limps or was injured in a sporting accident, even if it happened years ago. Hospital records often contain lots of pictures of knees.

Lior Shamir, a geneticist at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, has developed a knee-analysing mathematical algorithm for medical use. Algorithms are used by computers to analyse knee images in order to compare and contrast tiny structures in the joint that might indicate diseases like osteoarthritis. Computers make this work less labour-intensive. Dr Shamir and his colleagues now think his algorithm could identify individuals as well.

To find out, they used the algorithm to explore X-ray images of the general structure of various knees and then to look in greater detail by measuring the texture of the bone by monitoring differences in individual picture points, called pixels. The researchers found that analysing fine details at this level was roughly equivalent to studying fingerprints. The best identification was possible by concentrating on a smaller image of the centre of the joint rather than the entire knee.

The researchers  tested the technique on 425 people, who each had four X-rays taken of their knees. The knee images were then digitised for processing by a computer using the algorithm. Three of the X-rays of each person were matched to the individual they came from. The fourth image of each person was then analysed anonymously and the computer intructed to search for a match.

The team report in the International Journal of Biometrics that the system was able to match a knee to an individual correctly 34% of the time. It was also able to pick the ten closest matches to a particular knee 56% of the time. Although this is far short of the nearly perfect scores of retinal scans and fingerprinting, the work is at an early stage and the researchers expect that with fine tuning the analysis will become more accurate.

They are planning to tweak the algorithm to look at more features of the knee and to try magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI) to produce images of soft tissue in greater detail. The use of MRI would also allow more frequent scans for identification purposes by avoiding the potential risk of X-rays. The possible uses include high-security checks and forensic work. And the time may yet come when, before you board an aeroplane, a security guard will want a good look at your knees.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

The abstract of their paper follows.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

Biometric identification using knee X-rays

Identification of people often makes use of unique features of the face, fingerprints and retina. Beyond this, a similar identifying process can be applied to internal parts of the body that are not visible to the unaided eye. Here we show that knee X-rays can be used for the identification of individual persons. The image analysis method is based on the wnd-charm algorithm, which has been found effective for the diagnosis of clinical conditions of knee joints.  Experimental results show that the rank-10 identification accuracy using a dataset of 425 individuals is ∼56%, and the rank-1 accuracy is ∼34%. The dataset contained knee X-rays taken several years apart from each other, showing that the identifiable features correspond to specific persons, rather than the present clinical condition of the joint.

Pencil With Integrated Sharpener

Perfect Pencil by Faber-Castell.

$10.

What's that smell? The marmorated stink bug has arrived

Columnist John Kelly, writing in the October 15, 2009 Washington Post:

••••••••••••••••••••••••••

What's That Smell?

If your house has become a haven for squarish brown bugs about the size of a thumbnail [top], you are not alone. The brown marmorated stink bug -- Halyomorpha halys -- has arrived.

"This is just the vanguard, basically," said University of Maryland entomologist Mike Raupp. In parts of Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey, it's not unusual to find thousands of them in a home.

Mike said he's heard of people returning from vacation to find a room dark with stink bugs that crawled in through a gap in a window sill or a chink in a sash.

"It's got to be downright creepy," he said. And yet, like a marine biologist who studies sharks -- or any of several characters from the "Alien" franchise -- Mike is fascinated by these creatures.

"They're very cool animals," he said. "They look alien and prehistoric at the same time."

Mike acknowledges that, cool or not, the bugs are a concern. The stink bug, an invasive species from Asia that made its American debut in 1996 in, of all places, Allentown, Pa., feeds on plants. They're known to be partial to plums, peaches and apples, and there is concern they could devastate soybean crops.

The cool weather is sending the stink bugs to bed, but come spring, they'll be back.

••••••••••••••••••••••••

More here (scroll down to the bottom, click on "Bug of the Week Archive," then scroll down to October 5, 2009).

4-in-1 Cube Clock — 'Solves four needs at once'

Can your clock do that?

Didn't think so.

From the website:

•••••••••••••••••••••••

Cube Clock

Cube Clock solves four needs at one time with the world's most recognizable puzzle in this colorful four-in-one clock.

Twist the top to switch from clock to alarm to calendar to thermometer.

A conversation piece visitors may not be able to put down.

Great for desks, nightstands or coffee tables.

Requires one AA battery (not included).

3-1/4"/side cube.

Plastic.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

"A conversation piece visitors may not be able to put down" — until they get back home.

I'm just saying.

$19.98.

Who created this?

Answer here this time tomorrow.

Drink No More — 'Protect your pets from drinking out of the toilet'

What about the rest of us?

From the website:

••••••••••••••••••••••

Drink No More

Protects pets from drinking from the toilet.

When someone forgets to lower the lid, the Drink No More sensor will remind the dog and cat that drinking from the toilet is a no-no.

He doesn’t know it isn’t healthy to drink from the toilet, but he’ll know not to when this motion sensor starts beeping and the LED warning light starts flashing.

Peel and stick to attach to the underside of the lid.

When the lid is up, it’s on alert and will sound warning beeps when a pet or person approaches within 28”.

Deterrent is in off mode when toilet lid is closed.

2 CR450 batteries included.

2"Ø x 0.5"H.

Plastic.

••••••••••••••••••••••

$24.95 (pet and toilet not included).

'Well, I don’t have a future now. And this solves most of the problems.' — Richard P. Rogers

Rogers died  of a  brain tumor in 2001 at age 57.

At the time he had been working on and off on an autobiographical film for 20 years.

Much of that footage — including the quote in the headline above — was incorporated into "The Windmill Movie" (trailer above), directed by Alexander Olch and released this past summer.

An appreciation of Rogers by David Ansen, who roomed with him at Harvard in the 60s, appeared on June 14, 2009 in the New York Times.

Its final paragraph, from the film, quoted Rogers as he faced his imminent death: "'I actually feel rather good about the moment I’m going through.... Because my problem in life has always been about the future. What are you going to accomplish? What are you going to do? What is going to become of you in the future? Well, I don’t have a future now. And this solves most of the problems.' It was typical of the man that he would never own up to what, with great style and restless intelligence, he had indeed accomplished."

Bling Mirror Mug — Who loves you?

"Bling Mirror Mug lets you enjoy a hot beverage while checking on makeup or hair at a moment's notice. It's a picture-perfect stylized solution for multitaskers who are on the go, stuck in meetings or behind a desk."

Thought not specifically noted, it would appear equally effective for cold libations.

7.5"H x 3.25"Ø.

Plastic.

$8.98 (reflection included)