I am following the debate on surveillance cameras in the press. I remember a while back that the French are testing cameras that detect road traffic offenses but haven’t gone as far as their English counterparts who also detect Insurance and licensing fraud.
What puts the system well apart from other surveillance systems is the software that drives it. Image recognition scans the numberplates and compares them with a national database. From looking at some British Television documentary footage I notice that in suburban areas, the police can follow suspects through video camera use.
Our local Geneva Government announced yesterday that they were planning on installing 46 cameras in public places and one of the excuses is increased surveillance of the Euro2008 football matches that will be played in Geneva next year. There are already a significant number of cameras in use but these are visible on road junctions and are used for watching road traffic.
I get the feeling that citizens imagine that there are “video walls” depending on human vision and alert of problems. I don’t think that people realize the sophistication of modern computerized surveillance systems. I am going to be following the debate closely over the next few months.
Personally I don’t do anything in public that would attract attention so I’m not worried from that point of view. What does worry me however is audio surveillance where computerized high performance microphones looks for keywords in conversations.
The last time you were walking in public with your spouse or friend are you sure that something you said or a comment you made about someone or something couldn’t be misinterpreted if taken out of context? Think about that for a moment.
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