A Japanese restaurant combats 'sushi terrorism' with AI cameras

Now available on your smart speaker and wherever you get your podcasts

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts

It's Monday, February 13, 2023.

Many people in Japan have been outraged by a recent trend dubbed "sushi terrorism." Videos across social media show people carrying out all kinds of unhygienic acts, like licking the spoon for a container of green tea powder. Another video, which has more than 98 million views on Twitter, showed a person licking the top of a soy sauce bottle and a teacup's rim before putting them back at a branch of the Sushiro chain. The company said it has replaced all the soy sauce bottles and cleaned every cup at the affected restaurant.

To combat this gross trend, one chain, Kura Sushi, said it would use artificial intelligence to look for "suspicious opening and closing of sushi plate covers," Nikkei Asia reported. The company plans to upgrade existing cameras, used to track the dishes customers take from conveyor belts to determine their bill, by early March. If the system detects suspicious behavior, it will alert employees.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

The biggest stories you might have missed

The second-gen HomePod may be easier to repair than the first

Much less glue.

The original HomePod was notoriously difficult to repair – cutting tools were sometimes necessary. The second-gen model, however, isn’t as bad. iFixit has torn down the new smart speaker and discovered the large amounts of glue are gone – you can get inside using little more than a screwdriver, and the internal components are similarly accessible. Combine this with the detachable power cord and it should be feasible to fix some parts yourself. However, Apple hasn’t yet added its newest HomePod to its Self Service Repair program, but at least it would now be a more realistic addition.

Continue reading.

'Hogwarts Legacy' review: A massive game, alive with magic

The world is beautiful and bursting with secrets.

Hogwarts Legacy arrives with all the controversy of a Harry Potter project and a lot of anticipation. For many, this is, finally, a game that does justice to the magic and spectacle of the pop-culture phenomenon, with an open-world design, side quests, customizable characters and more. There’s a solid game, here, with an entertaining combat system and plenty of mysteries to solve.

Continue reading.

Sony A7R V camera review

Awesome images, improved video, unbeatable autofocus.

Sony’s full-frame A7R IV was one of the best mirrorless cameras Engadget’s Steve Dent ever reviewed, so there was a lot of pressure on its successor. Fortunately, this fifth-generation model is improved in pretty much every way. It’s a technological tour de force, featuring most of the company’s industry-leading tech. It has the best articulating screen on the market, the best autofocus system and much-improved video at up to 8K internally. The only real drawback is the rolling shutter effect that can mar video or photos taken in electronic shutter mode.

Continue reading.

Engadget Podcast: Microsoft and Google’s budding AI rivalry

A busy week of news from OnePlus, Nintendo, Samsung and more.

It was a busy week. Microsoft and Google both unveiled their AI products for the masses, with Microsoft holding an entire event this week to show off the new Edge and Bing. Google also had an event in Paris and unveiled the first Android 14 developer preview, while OnePlus launched its first-ever tablet alongside a new flagship phone. Cherlynn is joined this week by guest co-host Sam Rutherford to tear into the week’s onslaught of news and see how we feel about Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra while reviewing it.

Continue reading.