New Tech Sees Terrorists In Crowds?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Technology, The War On TerrorismFace and pattern matching software 2.0. Dig it:
Pixlogic has employed new software based on visual pattern recognition and search technologies to match archived still or video images with those gathered from security cameras or other sources, Middle East Newsline reported.Executives said the CIA has been an investor in the development of technology by Pixlogic and other U.S. companies.
“It does a reasonable job of matching people that sort of look alike,” Pixlogic chief executive officer Joseph Santucci said. “Most [competing] software tools only work under constrained circumstances.”
Executives said the company’s software could also detect and alert investigators to anomalies in video footage provided by closed-circuit television systems. Such anomalies could include an individual carrying a large box, or a truck that returns to the same spot. They said such technology has not yet been employed in either Britain or the United States.
I’m always leary of this kind of technology because what if it fails? Since the US has said they can hold anybody for any length of time, this movies sounds like it could end up with the CIA nabbing somebody in the wrong place at the wrong time.
We shall see.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 14th, 2005 and is filed under Technology, The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 15th, 2005 at 2:57 am
One of those on the one hand on the other hand things. All those public cameras in Londond did nothing to stop the bombers. On the other hand the pictures taken allowed the police to very quickly figure out who done it and how they did it. Now perhaps they can follow up and find out where they got their training, direction, and resources. This new technology might add that preventive angle. I share your concern about false positives, and what about false negatives? We still have to figure out why they do it? One reaction would be a global version of the Israeli solution - cordon off Muslims everywhere by pulling out of Iraq, stopping immigration of Muslims - even native Englishmen not on any watch list who could have come to JFK and done their dirty deed on the IRT with chemicals provided by a grad student at UNC, and posting police in every mosque to arrest the preacher when he says something politically incorrect. That is a godawful ugly future. Instead of arguing about what Karl Rove knew and when he knew it (liberals) or trying to teach kids that the world was formed 5,000 years ago (conservatives), you’d think our policiticans and media might think about how to prevent that future.
July 15th, 2005 at 3:00 am
Wow. Agreed jimbo. That’s not a future I want to have any part of.
However, I do think the Rove thing is a quite a bit different than creationism.
But hey, good point nonetheless.