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HELLFIRE
MVM
join:2009-11-25

7 recommendations

HELLFIRE

MVM

Facial recognition tech intro'd to school kids to speed lunch checkout

»www.theregister.com/2021 ··· ic_data/
quote:
Updated Facial recognition technology is being employed in more UK schools to allow pupils to pay for their meals, according to reports today. In North Ayrshire Council, a Scottish authority encompassing the Isle of Arran, nine schools are set to begin processing meal payments for school lunches using facial scanning technology. The authority and the company implementing the technology, CRB Cunninghams, claim the system will help reduce queues and is less likely to spread COVID-19 than card payments and fingerprint scanners, according to the Financial Times. Speaking to the publication, David Swanston, the MD of supplier CRB Cunninghams, said the cameras verify the child's identity against "encrypted faceprint templates", and will be held on servers on-site at the 65 schools that have so far signed up. He added: "In a secondary school you have around about a 25-minute period to serve potentially 1,000 pupils. So we need fast throughput at the point of sale." He told the paper that with the system, the average transaction time was cut to five seconds per pupil. The system has already been piloted in 2020 at Kingsmeadow Community School in Gateshead, England. North Ayrshire council said 97 per cent of parents had given their consent for the new system, although some said they were unsure whether their children had been given enough information to make their decision.

Updated on 18 October to add:
An ICO spokesperson said: "Organisations using facial recognition technology must comply with data protection law before, during and after its use. In addition, data protection law provides additional protections for children, and organisations need to carefully consider the necessity and proportionality of collecting biometric data before they do so. Organisations should consider using a different approach if the same goal can be achieved in a less intrusive manner.

...

A spokesperson for North Ayrshire Council told us: "Our catering system contracts are coming to a natural end and we have the opportunity to install IT infrastructure which makes our service more efficient and enhances the pupil experience using innovative technology.
Giving up alot of privacy for alittle (percieved) convenience... where can't this go wrong?

My Sarcastic / Cynical 00000010bits

ADDENDUM: cuz it never gets old -- »sites.google.com/site/h2 ··· i/923445
quote:
There are so many different ways in which you were required to provide absolute proof of your identity these days that life can easily become extremely tiresome just from that factor alone, never mind the deeper existential problems of trying to function as a coherent consciousness in an epistemologically ambiguous physical universe. Just look at cash point machines, for instance. Queues of people standing around waiting to have their fingerprints read, their retinas scanned, bits of skin scraped from the nape of the neck and undergoing instant (or nearly instant - a good six or seven seconds in tedious reality) genetic analysis, then having to answer trick questions about members of their family they didn't even remember they had, and about their recorded preferences for tablecloth colors. And that's just to get a bit of spare cash for the weekend. If you are trying to raise a loan for a jetcar, sign a missile treaty or pay an entire restaurant bill things can get really trying. Hence the Ident-i-Eeze. These encode every single piece of information about you, your body and your life into one all-purpose machine-readable card that you could then carry around in your wallet, and therefore represented technology's greatest triumph to date over both itself and plain common sense.
Regards

Snowy
Lock him up!!!
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Kailua, HI

5 recommendations

Snowy

Premium Member

quote:
"In a secondary school you have around about a 25-minute period to serve potentially 1,000 pupils. So we need fast throughput at the point of sale."

Basic math vs that quote;
25 minutes consists of 1500 seconds
Processing 1000 students using the full 1500 seconds allows for 1.5 seconds per student.
The last student processed would have exactly 0 seconds to eat.

Obviously they must have multiple point of sales
10 would allow 10.5 seconds per transaction but would still afford the last student with exactly 0 seconds to eat.
50 would allow a full half minute per student transaction but would still only allow for exactly 0 seconds for the last student processed to actually eat lunch.

Maybe a real solution might be in finding more than 25 minutes in a school day for lunch?
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

3 recommendations

dave

Premium Member

said by Snowy:

Maybe a real solution might be in finding more than 25 minutes in a school day for lunch?

I'm willing to believe things have changed since I was in school, but I didn't see anything to suggest lunch lasted 25 minutes. The quoted time was 25 minutes to serve lunch. One consistent interpretation might be that lunch break was 1 hour, it takes ~5 mins to get to the cafeteria and back, so there's about 25 mins for the last-served child to eat his lunch.

I looked around and didn't find any timetables for North Ayrshire secondary schools.

Snowy
Lock him up!!!
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Kailua, HI

3 recommendations

Snowy

Premium Member

I wondered what the 25 minutes actually referenced.
If the 25 minutes referenced the amount of time the last student would actually have to wait in line for food that's simply poor management with the first student in line having an extra 25 minutes to eat lunch over the last student in line.
If 25 minutes does reference the time a student might have to wait in line for food - has the facial recognition cut down on the 25 minute wait in line?
If so, how much did this new efficiency affect service time? By 10% with the new window falling to 22.5 minutes?
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

2 recommendations

dave

Premium Member

said by Snowy:

the first student in line having an extra 25 minutes to eat lunch over the last student in line.

That's how it was when I ate school lunches. All classes finish at the same time. The last kid in line needs to learn the cost of tardiness!

Snowy
Lock him up!!!
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Kailua, HI

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Snowy

Premium Member

Or at least hopefully learn to eat fast!
PX Eliezer
join:2021-08-03
Tranquility, NJ

3 recommendations

PX Eliezer to HELLFIRE

Member

to HELLFIRE
Modern Times.

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· -pEYGUiE
HELLFIRE
MVM
join:2009-11-25

2 recommendations

HELLFIRE

MVM

...back till elementary we had an hour for lunch, really 30mins to eat, 30mins for recess / break time. In postsecondary, I had had at least 2hours for lunch.

Maybe I just had it that good?

Regards

Snowy
Lock him up!!!
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Kailua, HI

4 recommendations

Snowy

Premium Member

said by HELLFIRE:

In postsecondary, I had had at least 2hours for lunch.

You must be including the martini hour.

Red_Menace
poking around since 1978
join:2001-11-03
Fruita, CO

3 recommendations

Red_Menace to dave

Member

to dave
I don’t recall ever going to a school where they dumped that many people out of classes at the same time. You would need a pretty decent lunch room to handle even a couple hundred.

therube
join:2004-11-11
Randallstown, MD

7 recommendations

therube to HELLFIRE

Member

to HELLFIRE
quote:
technology ... reduce queues ... COVID-19 ... card payments ... fingerprint scanners
I used to hand the cafeteria lady my $0.50 (USD) & that was that.
And if I didn't have, or if I forgot my lunch money, I'd tell her I'd bring it tomorrow.
And that was that.

So now we have to pay a company to scan faces.
And we need technology to that.
And we have the 'ol blame all - COVID.
And kids carry around (credit ?) cards?
And fingerprint readers?

Really?
Someone really ought to rethink this technology.
dave
Premium Member
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio

1 recommendation

dave to Red_Menace

Premium Member

to Red_Menace
The UK doesn't (or didn't) do that megaschool thing you see in the US. More smaller schools.

Lunch room = assembly hall.

vaxvms
ferroequine fan
Premium Member
join:2005-03-01
Polar Park

1 recommendation

vaxvms to HELLFIRE

Premium Member

to HELLFIRE
If the system crashes do the kids go hungry?
HELLFIRE
MVM
join:2009-11-25

4 recommendations

HELLFIRE

MVM

said by therube:

And kids carry around (credit ?) cards?
And fingerprint readers?

Don't forget kids have the darndest capability to lose / forget stuff, like glasses, wallets, magcards, pencil cases, etc.

Regards

Snowy
Lock him up!!!
Premium Member
join:2003-04-05
Kailua, HI

3 recommendations

Snowy

Premium Member

said by HELLFIRE:

Don't forget kids have the darndest capability to lose / forget stuff, like glasses, wallets, magcards, pencil cases, etc.

That was a plus for the facial recognition - even for a child - it's hard to lose or forget to bring your face.

vaxvms
ferroequine fan
Premium Member
join:2005-03-01
Polar Park

5 recommendations

vaxvms to HELLFIRE

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to HELLFIRE
said by HELLFIRE:

Don't forget kids have the darndest capability to lose / forget stuff, like glasses, wallets, magcards, pencil cases, etc.

OLD folks have those same problems. btdt.
HELLFIRE
MVM
join:2009-11-25

3 recommendations

HELLFIRE

MVM

said by Snowy:

it's hard to lose or forget to bring your face.

I wouldn't put it past anyone, much less a kid, to try this one day... just cuz

Regards
HELLFIRE

6 recommendations

HELLFIRE

MVM

Update to this story : »www.theregister.com/2021 ··· l_recog/ -- UK schools slap a hold on facial scanning of children amid fierce criticism
quote:
The use of facial recognition technology deployed in a number of school canteens across the UK has been put on hold for the time being after the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) intervened to ask some questions. Some nine schools in North Ayrshire, which is a Scottish authority that includes the Isle of Arran, were scheduled to start processing payments for school meals via facial scanning technology. This was intended to speed up the delivery of lunches from an average of 25 seconds to five, and potentially reduce COVID-19 infections compared to card payments and fingerprint scanners. However, campaigners told The Reg last week that using facial recognition in canteens was the wrong solution given the highly sensitive and personal nature of the data, which was to be stored on school servers. North Ayrshire Council confirmed on 22 October it is pausing the use of the tech, saying: "Having received a number of enquiries in recent days, we have temporarily paused the contactless payment system, which uses facial recognition, in our secondary schools from this afternoon while we consider and respond to the enquiries received." The Council has said that 97 per cent of parents, carers and children had consented to the use of facial scanning.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the consent rate given by TheReg article? "They going to scan little Jimmy / Kimmy's face? Ahh, who cares..."

Regards

therube
join:2004-11-11
Randallstown, MD

2 recommendations

therube

Member

quote:
I used to hand the cafeteria lady my $0.50 (USD) & that was that.
So a teacher friend tells me that Breakfast and lunch meals are free for all students during the 2021/2022 school year.
(And seemingly regardless of what that says, there are no "eligibility" requirements. As in show up, even during the summer, & eat.
And yet... the teachers (& if you figure 25/1) do have to pay.)
quote:
potentially reduce COVID-19 infections
Ah, the 'ol blame-all.

vaxvms
ferroequine fan
Premium Member
join:2005-03-01
Polar Park

4 recommendations

vaxvms

Premium Member

The story is about UK schools not US schools.

antdude
Matrix Ant
Premium Member
join:2001-03-25
US

antdude

Premium Member

said by vaxvms:

The story is about UK schools not US schools.

I bet American schools will do this too in the future.
PX Eliezer
join:2021-08-03
Tranquility, NJ

3 recommendations

PX Eliezer

Member

said by antdude:

said by vaxvms:

The story is about UK schools not US schools.

I bet American schools will do this too in the future.

Heard on CBS radio yesterday that this is planned for check-ins at airports, both for ticketing and security.

Astyanax
Premium Member
join:2002-11-14
Melbourne, FL
·AT&T FTTP

1 recommendation

Astyanax to Snowy

Premium Member

to Snowy
said by Snowy:

That was a plus for the facial recognition - even for a child - it's hard to lose or forget to bring your face.

Except when the kid's face has been beat up so bad for his lunch money the FR tech doesn't recognize him.

antdude
Matrix Ant
Premium Member
join:2001-03-25
US

1 recommendation

antdude to PX Eliezer

Premium Member

to PX Eliezer
said by PX Eliezer:

said by antdude:

said by vaxvms:

The story is about UK schools not US schools.

I bet American schools will do this too in the future.

Heard on CBS radio yesterday that this is planned for check-ins at airports, both for ticketing and security.

Huh? I thought it was already happening.