Posts Tagged ‘big brother’
Smart CCTV System Would Use Algorithm to Zero in on Crime-Like Behavior
Naturally, the system is raising privacy concerns of its own. But the aptly named Dr. James Orwell, who works on the team that is developing the system, says it will actually reduce the amount of Big Brother-ism associated with municipal CCTV systems by helping law enforcement focus on what’s criminal--and delete the rest of the footage of law abiding citizens going about their lives.
The system works by recognizing actions rather than individuals. Some behaviors--crowds running or converging in certain places, for instance--are known as “trigger events” and they set off a chain of events within the system. So say someone pulls a gun; people tend to scatter haphazardly in that situation, and the system can recognize that as a trigger event indicative of some kind of civil problem.
So aside from alerting authorities, the system would also reach back and begin collating footage from that camera and nearby cameras from the minutes before the crime began unfolding. It can also follow a person suspected of criminal activity from camera to camera, so police could track a criminal after the fact. The end result is a more complete video composite of a crime from the minutes leading up to the act and through the minutes following it.
And should no crime be committed at a certain place at a certain time--as is usually the case--the system knows that it can hold the footage for only the minimum required time and then delete it. This, Dr. Orwell says, directly addresses the privacy concern that people are being monitored by the state all the time.
Naturally, privacy groups and gun-brandishing criminals aren’t so much digging the idea.
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Kinect Camera Data Could Be Sold for Ad Targeting
Microsoft has detected that you need a new sofa, stat
That’s not to say that Microsoft is toying with ideas that other companies like Facebook don’t already employ, nor does it mean your Kinect is spying on you right now (although it could be – it’s probably best just not to think about it). But at a conference last week Microsoft’s Dennis Durkin, a VP in the company’s interactive department, said at a conference he would like to use the Kinect to better target the media and advertising it presents to users.
Durkin's example: among people watching a sporting event, Kinect could differentiate between what jerseys they are wearing and deduce what team or teams they support (it would ostensibly do all this while also determining how many people are watching, the gender and age breakdown of the room, etc.). Advertisers could then target all or part of that group of people.
As points out, that’s not so different from what Facebook ads do, though culling information from a public profile someone voluntarily puts on the Web is a bit different than watching someone watch TV in their skivvies at four in the morning.
Microsoft, in response, has made it clear that no data from the Kinect is being used for marketing purposes. But by toying with the idea that it might sometime in the future the company is more or less admitting that it could do so if it wanted to. This seems unlikely to go over well with privacy advocates, and may run afoul of President Obama’s new , if and when one finally materializes.
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With New Face-Scanning Technology, Movies Will Soon Watch You While You Watch Them
The cameras will illuminate the audience with infrared and create 3-D stereoscopic images of the audience. Using facial recognition technology, they will know which way you’re facing, if you’re surprised or just bored, even if you came to the movie with friends or solo. Advertisers will use the data to determine if they’re getting through to you or not, and adjust accordingly. The technology could also be a boon to movie studios running test screenings – why ask how you felt about the film if they can just see for themselves?
Video-Stitching Surveillance Camera Gives DHS 360-Degree, 100-Megapixel Seamless Views
The Imaging System for Immersive Surveillance, or ISIS, is less a wholesale breakthrough and more a combination of various video surveillance technologies into a single package that can be bolted to a ceiling or mounted on a high vantage point. Rather than employing a single camera, each ISIS module packs several individual cameras, allowing it to provide high-resolution video from edge to edge of wide vistas.
To do so, it relies on state-of-the-art video stitching technology that pulls disparate video feeds into one seamless picture in real time. Total resolution capability reaches 100 megapixels -- the equivalent of 50 full-HDTV movies playing simultaneously -- offering ISIS technicians to take in huge scenes with extreme clarity. Overlap between video feeds and a unique interface allows them to focus in on a particular person or point while still maintaining a view of the larger picture.
On top of the hardware magic, a collection of software apps are being developed that will allow ISIS to perform other high-tech tasks, like create exclusion zones that ISIS monitors automatically, alerting security personnel if the area is breached. It also will allow operators to tag a target, following a person or object moving across the landscape, panning and tilting as needed to keep visual contact with the target.
ISIS is being tested at Boston's Logan airport, but DHS is already eyeing a second-gen version of the system that has more sensors, longer-range cameras, infrared capabilities, and a more discreet frame that is smaller than a basketball. Which means that, unlike Orwell's Big Brother, this one could be watching and you might not even know it.
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