Berkeley's "respectful" surveillance cameras disregard faces

While blatantly spying on us is one thing, attempting to freshen it up by suggesting a venerating alternative is bordering on preposterous. As we've seen at the Sky Harbor airport, officials are trying nearly anything they can to make forthright invasions of privacy seem a bit less offensive, and a CCTV camera developed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley is next up to bat. The so-called "respectful cameras" are aimed at places of employment, where specified workers would wear a given marker that could be recognized by the camera. After being identified, the camera would then spot out the face of the individual to provide some sort of false assurance that their identity is magically safe. The best, er, worse part, however, is that the system doesn't actually delete the face beneath the circle, as it "allows for the privacy oval to be removed from a given set of footage in the event of an investigation." So much for dodging Big Brother.

[Via SciFiTech]

[Dustin Frazier @ May 5th 2007 8:41PM]

Uh, what?

[Rod Munch @ May 5th 2007 9:54PM]

Viva la surveillance!

[Simon @ May 5th 2007 10:12PM]

LOL

So after is identifies you it protects your privacy, which is hilarious in itself, but also this protection can be revoke at will.

Great way to waste money.

[Juaquin @ May 5th 2007 10:20PM]

So...basically...there's no point to it? If they're worried about privacy, I think the guy behind the screen probably realizes their coworker even without the face.

[Vexorg @ May 6th 2007 1:12AM]

But will a tinfoil hat render the system inoperative? Sure someone at Berzerkley could be found to test that...

[twisted future @ May 6th 2007 4:47AM]

I was just writing about future workplaces where employers will monitor employees body language to make sure they're happy and productive!

http://twistedfuture.com/2007/04/25/workplace-monitoring-face-recognition/

[Tim @ May 6th 2007 8:50AM]

This is the most useless thing I have ever seen. The many layers of uselessness are almost baffling.

[LukeA @ May 6th 2007 9:09AM]

"The best, er, worse part"

You mean 'worst.'

[Laughing Man @ May 7th 2007 8:22AM]

I thought what i would do was, I'd pretend i was one of those deaf-mutes.

[Fist of Konshu @ May 7th 2007 4:30PM]

Does this remind anyone of the laughing man from GITS

[Fist of Konshu @ May 7th 2007 4:30PM]

Does this remind anyone of the laughing man from GITS