Ramblings from an Automation Mad Man (A Blog Series)
By Jerry Maldonado –VP of Automation, Customer Lifecycle Solutions
Ever get that sinking feeling that somebody is watching you? You know, that feeling as if every move you make is somehow being taped, monitored, viewed, scrutinized and evaluated? It is as if there is no safe place to stand away from the prying electronic eyes peering through the haze of electronic maze that pierce into your mind and into your soulChances are that if you live in a big city, you can look up right now at a street corner, building, lamp post, ATM machine, coffee shop ceiling, connected cars passing by, or a passerby with a cell phone, and there is a camera looking at you at this very minute. Quick, strike a pose! If we focus in on just the surveillance cameras in the world, analysts predict that there are 250 million cameras in use in today’s neighborhoods. Typically on some sort of CCTV setup. That is a lot of eyes capturing images you and others every day. It’s a good thing that most of the playback feeds are reviewed after something happens. Very rarely is video footage of a human viewed on a single feed as they would a television program. Most monitoring stations are either unmanned (DVR or some other form of electronic storage) or used in conjunction with human monitors who scan images across multiple screens at the same time.
Well this is a good thing, right? This technically means that no one particular brother is watching me stop by a street vendor to order some of New York’s famous Sabrett hotdogs, yoo-hoo and a knish for lunch. Ok, maybe two dogs with the works. Most likely during this time they did not see me put my laptop bag down to get my order and pay, and most certainly they did not see the person or persons who picked my link to the digital world and quickly disappeared with it into the crowd. So what happens now? A cop takes my statement and they may or may not look through the street cameras depending on the time of day, and even then, it may not be worth the hours it will take to potentially see something.
Now with a little automation and some amazing changes in Smart Cameras, this same scenario may have an entirely new outcome. Cameras from companies like Smart-CCTV have developed cameras that can track items and see when a package has been picked up by someone other than the person that put it down. In my case, it would have detected the person picking up my bag. The system would have alerted human monitors who then could invoke recognition software to track the person across the system, which alerts the police to the situation. In fact, by the time my frantic 911 call came in, the operator would already informed me that the person has been caught and the bag can be picked up at the following location after I identify the contents in the bag.
Let’s look at another situation that you might see on a primetime TV show. The perpetrators of a jewelry heist disables the cameras of the store and its security system. The thieves have illegally parked their getaway car in a handicap spot in front of the store. The smart cameras could detect a car in the handicap spot and make a note of it. The system could have noticed that only one person got out and 180 seconds later three people got out before it sped away. This could be a trigger point on to the human monitor. Silent alarms at the jewelry store trigger an immediate response of the operator to ID and track the car within the system. A car chase shows the getaway car nearly missing parked cars and trucks, before slamming into garbage cans and then apprehended. In addition to the camera footage and in-car video units, all of these materials can be collected as evidence and submitted for facial recognition to verify ids of assailants. This might sound like fantasy but with the rise of high definition cameras and automated software from the Smart-CCTV folks, this is all possible.
Similar recognition systems can be used to track vehicles and other actions to tie into a system that will automate the process for capturing suspicious activities. These recognition systems are being tested in today’s latest connected cars to help in collision avoidance systems. Such systems automatically notifies the driver if an object in near the car and automatically causes the car to slow down, brake, and even turn the steering slightly to avoid oncoming traffic. The best part of this system is that sometimes it works so well, the driver doesn’t even know that a situation was prevented.
One day I predict that such systems will be able to take all kinds of sensory data feeds, cameras, news reports, social media, and predict crimes or persons of interest before they can or will be harmed. There are enough movies and TV shows depicting this possible future, some are good, and others portray a more evil outcome. But this is more in line with conversations about Artificial Intelligence, which I talk about in an earlier blog post. For now these new advances in cameras and precognitive algorithms and automated states make things a little safer.
So while I am a little un-nerved about prying eyes following my every move, I do get a sense of relief that crime has even more to worry about than me.
Follow the Ramblings of an Automation Mad Man every Wednesday. Did you miss last week’s post? Read it here: It’s not easy being green is it?