CCTV security systems could soon spot an assault on a bus before it happens, according to a major research project.
The system, part of which has already been tested in laboratory conditions, looks for suspicious behaviour associated with crime.
It would be able to send live CCTV pictures to operation rooms, from where controllers would be able to intervene.
The Queens University Belfast team say the software could make a significant impact on crime on transport.
Although much of the work is currently at the theoretical stage, the team from the university's newly-founded Centre for Secure Information Technologies predict that within five years their software will be able to profile people as they board a bus.
The system would then compare who it thinks these people are, and what they are doing, with more general data on the bus's location, time of day and historic crime rates.
Once it has sifted this data, it could be able to conclude whether someone is about to commit an assault and send live pictures to controllers.
Dr Paul Miller, head of the research project, said there were millions of CCTV cameras in the UK doing very little to fight crime.
"Their impact on anti-social behaviour and criminal behaviour is negligible - assaults on buses are a major problem and very little CCTV material is analysed in real-time," he said.
Dr Miller said the 15-strong team were still developing initial databases to identify an individual's gender and body shape.
via BBC NEWS | Technology | Bus CCTV could predict assaults.
Brilliant. And if the computer deems the person a sufficient threat, built in stun guns could zap them unconscious when they sit in the seat. If they do not sit, or if the person of a particular ethnicity reaches into his or her pocket to get some "gum", for example, the computer could decide to shoot them in the head, killing them instantly with swivel mounted guns which would be built in to several locations on the bus. I feel so much safer.
3 comments:
Wow! Xeno, Good posts:
1) CCTV predicts assaults
2) Use of sonic gun on protesters
3) 35 million Americans (12%) on food stamps, highest since 1969.
Tell me again. There's no such thing as "de-evolution" (4)?
I think we're witnessing it ... at least, on a social, economic and political level.
Thanks for the reply, but I just found an article that makes me think ... Wait! not so fast. There may be some hope for the USA.
In England, it seems, surveillance cameras are, more or less, accepted. But, in the US ... :
Lights, camera, reaction
In other cities, drivers have sabotaged traffic snapshots with Post-its, bullets and monkey masks
by J. Adrian Stanley
"Rebels of the past donned fedoras, black leather jackets and pantyhose headwear, but take it from 47-year-old flight attendant Dave VonTesmar: Nothing says "F--- the police" quite like a monkey mask.
Across America, law enforcement agencies are using camera technology to catch motorists speeding and running red lights, and ordinary people are responding by finding fresh ways to give a one-fingered salute to the law. When Colorado Springs' first enforcement cameras go up early next year, we may be witness to these antics.
Which brings us back to VonTesmar. Wearing monkey and giraffe masks, and driving a Subaru emblazoned with the words "Bucktooth Racin'," this modern-day Jesse James racked up $6,700 in speeding tickets in Arizona before police finally caught up with him. VonTesmar had been nailed scores of times on photo-radar systems, but he had avoided tickets because Arizona law requires that the in-the-act pictures of an offending driver match the car owner's driver's license photo. ...."
Cool! America keep it up.
So, no to Big Brother
Pleasant level of information here. There is so much data around about this issue that every now and then you cannot see the wood for the trees but you have pitched this at completely the appropriate level so that the lay person can be familiar with - thank you!
Post a Comment