Slashdot Mirror

Actually, even low resolution cameras can be really useful, under certain conditions. If the suspect stands still for a few frames, the images can sometimes be enhanced due to motion differences between the frames. The process is like anti-aliasing in reverse.

In the video clips i saw on the news the suspects were walking, and the differences between frames looked too great to get the kind of data needed to interpolate.

If you're interested in seeing this done in a non-fakey-CSI application, Thierry Legault is an astrophotographer who uses frame interpolation to produce amazingly clear shots of objects like the ISS. See his site here to learn more: http://legault.perso.sfr.fr/

Especially since Skype out is more expensive than my current voip provider, they have the money for it and interoperate with the POTS.

Which is even more true in France since most ISPs include unlimited national and international calls in their basic 30€ ADSL plans.

Not true, here's a couple of other photos:

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2011/18may11/Maximilian-Teodorescu3_strip.jpg

http://legault.perso.sfr.fr/iss_atlantis_transit2_2010.html

Here's a couple of more recent ones, including videos, also taken from the ground (by the same photographer, probably): http://legault.perso.sfr.fr/STS-134.html

In some CSI type show I was watching the other day, they were able to "enhance" the footage from a security camera in order to "widen the field of view" and see someone "off camera".

I have to think writers just chuckle to themselves when they add something so silly.

Then you may be surprised to learn that there are security cameras that actually work that way, and are available now. You can buy a camera with a 180 degree fisheye lens and high resolution sensor that records everything within sight, and then run software that lets the user virtually pan and tilt in every direction, straightening the image so that it looks like it was shot by a normal security camera. I'm not saying that the CSI camera was one of these, but they do exist. Mobotix makes one that looks like a smoke detector.

In some situations the "enhance" that lets them "zoom in" on a face is also reality. If there is motion in the scene, such as you might get with a panning view of a scene or with a moving subject, the differences between frames holds extra information. There is frame stacking software available that can interpolate the edges between pixels. (Thierry Legault used this technology to produce some amazing images of the shuttle Discovery with a ground-based telescope, as reported on /. a few days ago http://legault.perso.sfr.fr/STS-133.html .) By measuring the shift in values as those real edges approach the edge of a pixel, the software can extract enough information to figure out where the real edges are. You can kind of think of it as "ClearType in reverse" or "anti-aliasing in reverse". But of course this technique only works in certain circumstances, when the subject is moving in a fashion that is cooperative with the technology and resolution of the camera. Six frames of the back of a fleeing suspect's head is still not going to let you zoom in on the zit under his nose.

And these techniques are in use by video forensics analysts today. The lab guys I know may not be quite as sexy as the ones on TV, but they get results that yield convictions by making some pretty poor video useful in a courtroom. And I know the operators of these systems chuckle when their equipment helps bring down another bad guy.

http://legault.perso.sfr.fr/eclipse110104_solar_transit_33.jpg

For France, here's what a quick search came up with:
- day pass @ 2 euros up to 10 megs, 8 euros then, for PC, need 3G dongle
- day pass @ 9 euros for mobile phone
- 15h pass @ 40 euros for mobile phone
from
http://www.sfr.fr/internet-mobile/offres-internet-mobile-cle-internet-3g/les-offres-internet-3g-?vue=00235e&addFilter=&usage=occasionnel&sfrintid=hbolmid_off_pass_bolmid
http://www.laboutique.bouyguestelecom.fr/forfaits-mobiles-offres-internet/forfaits-internet-mobile-3g-147_g.html#nogo

I think the general idea is to plan ahead: find out what the big mobile phone operators are, go to their web sites, hope for an english version :-p Then once you get there, go to one of their shops, there's usually one at airports.

... at least in France:

http://www.sfr.fr/mobile/internet-ultra-portable.jspe?sfrintid=HP_NA_MEA_2

You can have an EEEPC for 99 euros + a USB key which allows to connect to the Internet using a 3G+ connection, which for a 2 years subscription costs you 30 euros/per month. Do the maths :) !

London and Paris need to learn of this idea of free WiFi.

WIFI in Paris has boomed because of the proliferation of ADSL services like Free, Orange, N9uf/SFR, Darty, Alice, etc that all include a box that does ADSL, WIFI, telephone & TV. It is now rare to find someone who has ADSL without having an associated WIFI hotspot even when they do not use the WIFI. As all these boxes come configured with WPA PSK, finding open hotspots has gotten extremely rare as it takes someone who knows what they are doing & is willing to share their ADSL line.

London also needs to understand the idea of running their subway all night.

Paris needs the same lesson, but it won't come until they have automated the train drivers out of existance due to the labor unions blocking any progress on this point. Maybe my kids will be able to go out to a nightclub & get home before 6AM, but I've tired of running around Paris in the middle of the night looking for a taxi or walking home...

Errr...You're beginning to get the same speeds all over Europe, too. And commercially available since a few weeks ago.

In France, SFR (Vodafone group) annouced here 384kbps available,starting last month...