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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday June 25 2019, @12:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the quis-custodiet-ipsos-custodes? dept.

The ACLU has published a report "on a $3.2 billion industry building a technology known as 'video analytics', which is starting to augment surveillance cameras around the world and has the potential to turn them into just that kind of nightmarish army of unblinking watchers."

Using cutting-edge, deep learning-based AI, the science is moving so fast that early versions of this technology are already starting to enter our lives. Some of our cars now come equipped with dashboard cameras that can sound alarms when a driver starts to look drowsy. Doorbell cameras today can alert us when a person appears on our doorstep. Cashier-less stores use AI-enabled cameras that monitor customers and automatically charge them when they pick items off the shelf.

In the report, we looked at where this technology has been deployed, and what capabilities companies are claiming they can offer. We also reviewed scores of papers by computer vision scientists and other researchers to see what kinds of capabilities are being envisioned and developed. What we found is that the capabilities that computer scientists are pursuing, if applied to surveillance and marketing, would create a world of frighteningly perceptive and insightful computer watchers monitoring our lives.

Source: https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/army-robot-surveillance-guards-coming


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  • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Tuesday June 25 2019, @02:13PM (8 children)

    by acid andy (1683) on Tuesday June 25 2019, @02:13PM (#859715) Homepage Journal

    Start worrying when these robot guards reach insect size and smaller. Actually, stop worrying at that point and start drinking because it'll be far too late to care.

    --
    If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Freeman on Tuesday June 25 2019, @03:23PM (1 child)

    by Freeman (732) on Tuesday June 25 2019, @03:23PM (#859740) Journal

    As the drones lost mass, they added capability. The 2013 DelFly Explorer gained autonomous navigation, thanks to a stereovision camera and hardware for processing obstacle detection—no mean feat for a system that could only weigh a few grams. Self-driving cars make complete 3D maps of their environment to feed into their obstacle detection algorithms, but that requires sensors, processors, and memory, even the lightest of which would be too heavy for a gossamer robot to lift.

    So the team built different vision algorithms, inspired by hunting dragonflies.

    https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/robotics/insect-drone-camera-flies-like-bee [asme.org]

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday June 25 2019, @04:09PM (2 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 25 2019, @04:09PM (#859762) Journal

    > Start worrying when these robot guards reach insect size and smaller.

    At insect size, assuming they cannot overwhelm you with quantity, you can at least impose costs by squishing those tiny pests. Or spray Krylon on them or something. Super glue traps.

    > or smaller

    That might be worrying. But then you start thinking of other ways to fight. Sprays, glues, other chemical or electrical / magnetic traps.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 25 2019, @06:42PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 25 2019, @06:42PM (#859802)

      Hair spray works very well on tiny robots.

    • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Tuesday June 25 2019, @11:45PM

      by acid andy (1683) on Tuesday June 25 2019, @11:45PM (#859919) Homepage Journal

      I'm thinking they'll start arriving on every doorstep. If one should fail to phone home, the occupier would be automatically held responsible, charged many thousands of dollars, and / or be sent for "re-education".

      --
      If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
  • (Score: 1) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Tuesday June 25 2019, @06:30PM (1 child)

    by jmichaelhudsondotnet (8122) on Tuesday June 25 2019, @06:30PM (#859799) Journal

    'and smaller.'

    Nanobot tracking. Lookup the countries and companies into nanotech, some of them have a history of very dirty tricks.

    What if they put them in food or water? What if they could track you down like a tick from a mile away?

    A permanent bug in your body at all times. There will not be a news story to warn you. (at this rate...you are lucky i have the guts to even write this)

    Who would argue that isn't being threatened?

    What would it take to prevent this future?

    (besides me writing this and risking being first on the list of intended recipients)

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 25 2019, @09:48PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 25 2019, @09:48PM (#859873)

      Nobody is coming to kill the brave J. Michael Hudson because he had a brainfart about nanobots.

      I welcome the introduction of these nanobots. They hold great medical potential.

  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday June 25 2019, @11:39PM

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Tuesday June 25 2019, @11:39PM (#859917)

    ...start drinking...

    OK then. I will.