Techinfo: Sigfox to Launch Rhino Poaching Tracker
TECHINFO – Sigfox, a French tech firm, is currently working on a bite-size tracker technology. Primarily, this tech can be inserted into rhinos’ horns for the surveillance and protection of the said species.
The animal species experienced a dramatic decline in the past century. Further, this is due to urban expansion and poaching. With this, wildlife organizations started to depend on technology to protect species away from extinction.
A decade ago, the global number of rhinos decreased 20,000. This is because of the unceasing poaching. However, the number of rhinos increased to about 29,000 due to conservation efforts.
Technologies such as cameras, electronic bracelets, infrared and motion sensors, and even drones have been utilized for years to safeguard endangered species. But these techs were limited by vast distances and resources.
Meanwhile, Sigfox is a tech firm popular for creating networks that connect objects to the internet. This created sensors that function to detect the exact location of rhinos. Of course, this is through the use of Sigfox’s network for a longer period of time.
“We now help rangers and conservation experts to observe from a distance, taking less risk, and especially to anticipate potential dangers that the animal could (face),” said Sigfox Foundation Head Marion Moreau.
Moreover, these sensors can notify park rangers particularly when rhinos go near classified dangerous areas. Hence, these sensors can alert and get rescue teams to the location in real time.
“We started a project in Zimbabwe three years ago, inventing a prototype of a captor, inserted in the horn of about 30 rhinoceroses, which emits the exact position of the rhinoceros three times a day, over three years,” said Moreau.
Techinfo: Instagram feed “back to normal” after bug attack
On Thursday, Instagram, the photo-sharing social network of Facebook Inc, stated it already fixed a bug attack on its platform. The bug has triggered a temporary change in the social network’s feed that users witnessed.
According to Instagram, the bug led to a small test broadly distributed with its users. In fact, some users needed to swipe their feed horizontally in order to view new posts – a feature similar to Instagram’s stories.
However, the sudden changes provoked criticisms among Twitter users. Many are comparing the feature to the unpopular redesign of Snapchat.
A tweet from @samfloresxo, saying “the Instagram update is so trash it’s worse than the Snapchat update.”
Meanwhile, Snapchat had difficulty in attracting users since the launch of its new version. As per users, the latest version was too confusing.
Instagram Head Adam Mosseri expressed apology for the confusion.
“We quickly fixed the issue and feed is back to normal,” Instagram stated.
