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April 06, 2007
Talking Cameras
The UK is going to start adding loudspeakers to some cameras to tell people to stop littering or other anti-social behavior. The BBC has a clip of the system in action, where people who leave behind litter are asked to please pick up the litter. This is slightly different than other talking camera systems, because this system relies on a live camera operator.
There are several issues this technology raises. The first is how intrusive do we want government/camera systems to be? Do we want them to shout instructions to us? Does it matter this is for littering or should it be extended to other more dangerous situations, such as assaults? The second is how effective this system will be. This strikes me more as a novelty than as something that will have lasting consequences. Along these lines, an issue raised by Spy Blog is the vast difference between the optical power of a camera and the audible range of a loudspeaker. Loudspeakers can't zoom and pan like cameras, so the audible instructions may be difficult to hear or confuse other third parties.
Posted by rshah at April 6, 2007 03:17 PM
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