privacy
Intel Chief Says We Need To Redefine "Privacy"
Submitted by TheTower on Mon, 11/12/2007 - 5:34pm.
As Congress debates new rules for government eavesdropping, a top intelligence official says it is time that people in the United States changed their definition of privacy.
Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguard people's private communications and financial information.
Presumed Guilty: Universal DNA database would make us all suspects
Submitted by MichaelVail on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 1:28pm.
Imagine being a potential suspect for every crime committed in your country. That would be the logic if DNA from all of a country's citizens were stored in police DNA records, claims a report published this week by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, which advises the UK government.
Court Says Travelers Can't Avoid Airport Searches
Submitted by TheTower on Tue, 08/14/2007 - 3:06pm.
U.S. airline passengers near the security checkpoint can be searched any time and no longer can refuse consent by leaving the airport, the nation's largest federal appeals court ruled Friday.
Google Pulls A Fast One: Search Engine Giant Adds Facial Recognition To Its Image Search
Submitted by MichaelVail on Wed, 05/30/2007 - 7:27pm.
Google has silently added face recognition abilities to its image search. It is now possible to search for images that only contain faces by appending the "&imgtype=face" query string onto the end of a search URL. There is currently no way to indicate that you only want to search for faces through the image search interface. As well, adding on "&imgtype=news" displays only images that are associated with news stories.
The RFID Guardian: a firewall for your tags
Submitted by MichaelVail on Wed, 05/02/2007 - 6:35pm.
Don't carry RFID? You might be surprised; the short-range ID technology is currently found in everything from US passports to swipeless credit cards to public transit passes to World Cup tickets to car keys to the building access pass for your office building. A few of the digerati even elect to have RFID implants from VeriChip slipped beneath their skin in order to use them as cashless payment systems.
3,500 schools now use finger print scanners in 'Big Brother state by stealth'
Submitted by MichaelVail on Fri, 02/09/2007 - 1:29am.
As many as 3,500 schools are taking fingerprints from pupils, often without their parents' permission, a new poll revealed yesterday.
Soaring numbers require pupils to undergo biometric identity checks before they can register in the mornings, buy canteen meals and use the library.
Your Fingerprints Taken At Roadside
Submitted by MichaelVail on Wed, 11/22/2006 - 3:24am.
Drivers pulled over by police are to have their fingerprints scanned by the side of the road.
A pilot scheme for a new hand-held electronic fingerprint reader is to be launched in Luton, Bedfordshire, by officers targeting motoring offences.
Police hope the Lantern device will save time and money by allowing them to identify suspects on the roadside without having to take them to the station.
It lets officers search a national database of 6.5m fingerprints and get a result within five minutes.
Pre Crime?: Smart surveillance systems may soon detect violent behavior
Submitted by MichaelVail on Fri, 10/27/2006 - 12:58pm.
Researchers at the University of Texas in Austin are hoping its smart surveillance system can lend a hand in detecting that pent-up rage. The "computer vision system" can reportedly analyze human movements as they occur, and distinguish between "friendly behaviors such as shaking hands, and aggressive actions like punching, pushing," or launching pocket rockets. The hope is that this creation will make the oh-so-platitudinal jobs of security guards even less demanding by alerting those on duty of violent fits automatically, curing the problem of sleeping through a battle royale in the east parking deck.
Cameras To Comb Crowds
Submitted by MichaelVail on Wed, 10/25/2006 - 2:16am.
DefenseTech
Posted: Oct 24, 2006
Posted: Oct 24, 2006
Cameras to Comb Crowds
Cameras have grown smarter in recent years -- better able to recognize faces at close distances, and pick up on strange behavior from a little farther out. Go in through an out door, or leave a suspicious package behind on a train platform, for example, and you'll be spotted, quick.
But figuring out what a group of people is doing, or being able to ID a face within that group, that takes brains today's digital video software still doesn't have. U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is hoping a new research grant can begin to change that -- 7 watts, maybe.
SOCOM just gave Colorado Springs-based Securics, Inc. a $100,000 grant to start developing programs for "Monitoring of Crowd Activities." The idea is to train cameras to find faces from afar, and to "develop new algorithms explicitly for crowd management, rather than building on the traditional intelligent video surveillance algorithms that are focused on isolated targets." Oh, and by the way: this should all happen in a small, self-contained system that takes up barely any power at all.
Securics will start small, looking at algorithms for a crowd's "vertical motion energy," like a group of people "pumping its fists, or raising signs," says company chief Terry Boult.
There will also be some comparisons to how much activity is usually in the area. "If normally, on Tuesdays, there are only three people on this corner, and now there are 50, maybe there's a problem," Boult adds.
In addition, Securics will build on the work it did for Darpa, as part of the agency's "Human ID at a Distance" program. Boult says the company developed for Darpa software to identify faces from 100 to 200 feet away. The SOCOM effort, he hopes, will far surpass that.
In new child ID database, the eyes have it
Submitted by MichaelVail on Mon, 10/23/2006 - 11:40am.
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Photo: By Mike Kellems Susan Carpenter (seated, left) shows Olivia Zarantonello, 5 (in green sweater) the new child identification scanner technology at the LaPorte County Sheriff’s Department Friday. Also watching are Olivia’s sister Alexia, 9, and (from left) Kevin O’Reilly, U.S. Rep. Chris Chocola and Sheriff Jim Arnold. |
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