New "Big Brother" camera technology

The possibilities that researchers envision for this kind of technology have the ring of science fiction. Think of systems that spot abandoned packages on a train platform or alert an airline crew to a potential terrorist on board. Already, cities like Chicago have invested in "anomaly detection" cameras around town, linked to emergency headquarters.

source

This is a rather frightening article, even if it wasn't intended to be. A grocery store has implemented a new type of camera to spot "sweethearting." That is when a clerk acts to assist friends in shoplifting. The cameras and computers to which they are connected are designed to spot this; no humans involved until the alert is sounded. How long will it be until there are cameras like this everywhere?

The push for this will of course be in the name of "the public good." We'll start to see these on lampposts and stoplights here and there. Then soon enough, they will be everywhere looking for everything from smoking in a non-designated area to jaywalking to violations of whatever rules and regulations they care to throw our way.


TA

Britain already has those kind of cameras. While I do agree that it's an invasion of privacy, the truth of the matter is that the streets ARE getting EXTREMELY violent in some areas. So, yes, in some cases it would help. If you don't believe me, walk down the streets of downtown Los Angeles sometime.

reply to post by MoonChild02


There are areas around here as well, through which one doesn't venture without protection. However, i still don't think privacy for safety is a fair trade. This is a slippery slope and one that, once we start sliding down, we may never be able to climb back up. Once a right is removed it is seldom returned. Thanks for the reply, post starred.


TA

I read that we have those cameras already in britain and Scotland in particular. To be honest I do not mind them as much as I did, but then I did have my skull fractured and my nose broken by a group of ferel youth just for being in the wrong street at the wrong time last year.

The cameras alerted the police to my unconciousness.

I dread to think what could have happened had those cameras not been there.





[edit on 12-5-2009 by Dissemination]

They already watch people in there homes so why do you care about on the streets.

What they put in the press is just years old. Years ago a person told me, that people in n ireland thought the english had put microphones in the lamposts. This was a couple of decades ago.

Things are always far worse than they tell you on this subject.