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According to the Daily Mail, London based surveillance firm BRS Labs is about to put a whole bunch of extremely advanced surveillance cameras throughout neighborhoods and public transit stations in San Francisco.
The company says will put them in 12 stations with up to 22 cameras in each, bringing the total number to 288.The cameras will be able to track up to 150 people at a time in real time and will gradually build up a ‘memory’ of suspicious behaviour to work out what is suspicious.
Advanced video analytics are operable in the CCTV systems in many major cities in the US, including Chicago and New York City. What's the problem? First of all, there's no research to show whether these technologies actually work. Second, they could end up ensnaring people who are doing absolutely nothing dangerous or illegal, simply odd or unusual. I happen to be one of those people.
Can technology save us from anyone who means to do us harm? That certainly seems to be the message, doesn't it?