Random Thoughts and Whatnot

"Your voice shakes me through but you don't know what I might be" ~ richard buckner

October 27, 2007

The next generation of video surveillance

I read a book recently which had the premise that nobody could move through society unrecognized by surveillance cameras and intelligent algorithms would record when a person acted in a behavior outside their norm. So browsing the news yesterday, I found this quote buried in the fourth paragraph of the article "Cradle Launches Janus Surveillance System in India":

Unlike conventional CCTVs, where one has to constantly monitor the camera to detect abnormal behaviour, Janus system not only records data it can also trigger alarm automatically if it detects any abnormal behaviour, said Gupta.

Now that's what I'm talking about. They're not just recording suspicious behavior of bad guys and evaluating it against normal behavior, but they are recording behavior of all of us and running that through their evaluations to determine abnormal behavior. I'm trying to think of what it could evaluate, without human judgment, to be abnormal behavior: leaving or forgetting a bag on the floor at the mall, loitering and taking pictures at monuments and government buildings, or maybe racing to your car because you forgot your wallet. Couple this with facial recognition software and beware!

Written at 11:13 AM by David.

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