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reminds me of this site, well worth wandering around in.

sousveillance

the guy has been at it a long time, and has come up with some interesting approaches from both a technical and a social perspective. the 25 MB video file inside sears had me both laughing on the floor and scared shitless. "Call security" takes on a whole new meaning...

taking action isn't difficult, but the powers that be want you to think so.

hope that helps.

Steve Mann's site doesn't even mention misuse of dressing-room video. His only mention of anything similar is in a spiel for his "art exhibit" which included a mocked-up anthrax decontamination facility, which he apparently thought would be an ideal place for getting lots of pr0n video. As such, my response was to his site and stated purpose, not to yours, no matter how noble yours might be.

When you say "department stores need cameras to protect their stock - but they need to do it in an accountable way," do you mean that if they misuse the video, they should be subject to lawsuits? Or are you saying that they should have a CorpWatch representative overseeing all videotape loading, unloading, and archiving? Does the corner 7/11 store need to hire one as well, since they have a camera behind the register? Where do you want to go with this?

"What recourse does the victim have?" The same recourse that they would have if a peeping tom videotaped them at home and posted mpeg's on the Internet—except that in the store's case, it would be much easire to prove liability, and to get a lucrative settlement. Which is why stores are very careful with such tapes, and only show them in the executive breakroom, where they belong.

"I posted anonymously because I don't have a login ID for slashdot, and I can't be bothered to get one." Yet you have the time to post anonymously ad nauseum? I'm simply dumbfounded by this statement.

Go in peace, my child.

It's not about harassing Wal-Mart guards,

That's good, because he's just harassing salespeople from the looks of things.

1) Why exactly don't they want me videotaping them, but they can videotape me?

Because it's their store, and they're responsible to the owner to make sure that, though anyone can come in and freely handle millions of dollars' worth of goods that doesn't (yet) belong to them, the employees won't let too much of it walk out unpaid for. Just because someone works in a place that uses video security doesn't mean they want, or deserve, to see themselves on a 'gotcha!' website.

And conversely, if this fellow posts his videotape of Sears employees, does that make it okay for Sears employees to post whatever tape they have of him, or of any of us?

2) In what other ways am I being watched/monitored/tracked? Should I care? (GPS enabled cell phones, anyone? M$Passport anyone?)

He could make a better case for this by attacking these issues directly, rather than claiming that storecams are akin to terrorism. Now more than ever, that sort of rhetoric will lose credibility for his 'cause' quicker than anything.

3) How much is enough rights to give up for the sake of security?

Store cameras aren't about giving up rights, any more than my home security system limits your freedom of movement. If you don't want to go in, just don't go in. Our society is free to bankrupt companies with unpopular business practices simply by denying them our trade. Simple, isn't it? But before you ask how we get everyone to boycott Wal-Mart, let me suggest that nobody really cares that they're videotaping. In December 2001, it's just not that big an issue.

Someday we may have to accept the fact that if nobody else seems concerned about our cause, it may indicate that our cause is only important to us, and not that everyone else is an idiot.

You post the question "Where's the accountability?" — anonymously?

Did you see the Sousveillance video? He's not doing exposés of concealed cameras in dressing rooms; he's strolling through department stores, asking employees idiotic questions about the "mysterious dark domes" in the ceiling as if they were part some massive coverup, and none of the poor idiots (non-University of Toronto CE students) around him were totally unaware that they were being watched in a department store. It inspires no social change (except perhaps more stores banning video cameras), and has no effect outside of feeding his overinflated ego. This is nothing more than stupid camera tricks posing as citizen activism.

While we're on the subject, let's throw it out to the group—how would you like this guy to walk into your employer's business and start following you around with a camcorder? "Why do I have to have a password to use one of these computers? What are those weird white boxes with red lights in the corners of the ceiling? Why is the server room locked? Why did you call the police?" Seems pretty juvenile when you think about it.

I think wearcam.org should send someone down the street knocking on people's doors, asking why their peepholes only work one way.

Come on, guys. It's simple economics. If a store wants to reduce losses due to theft, they install cameras. Or they install domes that look like cameras. If you're going to be insulted about that, why aren't you insulted that you can't leave without going through the registers, or that they lock the door after hours, or that the "Employees Only" areas are only for employees? Why not require retailers to move their entire stock outside under a large awning, and turn their backs to us to show how much they trust their customers?

Come on, dude, you're living in a paranoiac techno-Robin-Hood fantasy that would have been only moderately tolerated even before 9/11. Now, your implication that the security guys in Wal-Mart are worse than the terrorists who blew up WTC, makes your opinion worth less than sludge.

Check out the FAQ at wearcam.org. Its a pretty interesting read. Why dont we have a World Subjectrights Day everyday?!?! This is something that shouldnt be ignored and should have more attention givin to it. Too many people/companies dont take accountability for there actions and this has to stop!

Hook this baby up with a Head Mounted Display, a wrist-mounted keyboard and trackball, some batteries, 802.11b, then stuff it in your backpack, and away you go!

If this project becomes a centralized point of distribution or access (ie: SourceForge,) this could really help the open-knowledge community.

For example, many people run out to buy expensive assembler books when the best resource is available online. Or, they run out to buy expensive Linux device driver manuals when the best resource is available online.

Open-source software mainly helps people write new software that uses key techniques / algorithms from open software. Open-source documentation, on the other hand, helps impart the foundations on which the open-source programs get created.

Ideally, this openscience approach would spread -- and students wouldn't need to spend $500 per semester on textbooks. And unfortunately, the Project Gutenberg idea to import books as their copyright expires (50 years after the author dies) would never fly for technology-based books.

As a side note, this index of online books has a lot of good information.

Also see this paper at wearcam.org.

Also see this paper at wearcam.org.

Also see this paper at wearcam.org.

along with thad, steve is one of the best known wearables pioneers. one of my favorite examples to show to people new to wearables is steve's condomwoman sequence:

in particular, the before & after photos =)

along with thad, steve is one of the best known wearables pioneers. one of my favorite examples to show to people new to wearables is steve's condomwoman sequence:

in particular, the before & after photos =)

along with thad, steve is one of the best known wearables pioneers. one of my favorite examples to show to people new to wearables is steve's condomwoman sequence:

in particular, the before & after photos =)

There are several ways of using a mouse without actually using a mouse. MIT's wearable computing department has a link to the eyemouse.

the eyemouse

Should be Steve Mann at wearcam.org.

I'd much rather get ahold of a wearable. Does anyone know of any such plans? I've seen the PC104 based wearble that Charmed Technolgies makes but it's still a bit clunky. Maybe someday I can get a Microoptical display and set of datagloves, attached to a Transmeta wearable. Check out weracam for some really cool uses of wearables. Steve Mann has a system that let's you take notes on people and if the mounted camera recognizes them it automatically pops up the notes in overlay. He also has a high speed camera that lets him read the writing off the sides of tires on moving cars.

Simple test for wearables: Would you be caught dead wearing that getup in a public place where you might meet people who would recognise you? I have yet to see any wearables that satisfy this extremely basic criteria.

I'm from UofT (just graduated) and I've attempted one of Mann's talks. When he told us that he was wearing a computer, I was surprised, I hadn't noticed it. The display was in his sunglasses (as requested in post above). The glasses aren't the most stylish ever, but it worked and didn't look too horible.

Check out this link

Wherever you see Mann wearing sunglasses, he has a display set up in there. And yes, you can browse the web with his wireless 'net access.

Reason that most of the pictures show students running around with big cameras, etc on their heads is that they had to pay for these things themselves. They don't have money to build everything small and pretty. In a course like 1766, your equipment needs to work before you can do the course work (whatever it is).

Don't misunderstand me, I'm no fan of Mann. He's freaky. But his stuff does work and it's not as bad as one might think.

m

Though it's perhaps a bit beyond this particular application, check out Nomadic Research Labs. This is Steven K Roberts' page, the fellow who created his Behemoth bike years back and travelled rather widely with it.

The technomad resources list might be the most useful part of the site in this case, but overall there's a lot to explore. Steve's been doing this for years, and has been extremely willing to offer assistance to other technomads in training throughout the years.

There also exists a Technomads mailing list for those who are interested. The traffic's pretty slight, but there have been some decent discussions of the issues involved over the years, and a reasonable number of the members of the wearable community are subscribed (and ostensibly interested in the field) as well.

.jeremy

As for security (students requiring root on the boxes and all), we handled this by putting all the boxes behind a switch and requiring the use of ssh for all communications. Students caught doing anything stupid (like DoS attacks) can get expelled; FWIW, we didn't catch any.

Obviously the PC is not going to disappear from the horizon, but more and more cheap 'specialty' gadgets will enter our lifes. wearing computers, wearing more computers, Steve Mann at UofT (Toronto) Personally I find it cool that you can wear all those computers on you, and noone will even suspect it. the photo to the right However, after working with all these wireless phones for over 3 years, I have realized that they give me headaches. So I dumped my PCS.

When I looked this over, I had a great idea..

If you can associate a shopping list with the groccier, it wouldn't be hard to associate "turn on IR and colour adjustment" mode when some cute girl I like happens to walk by... "Clothes be gone!" .. X-ray specs that work -- I'd buy that for a few hundred dollars! >;-)
---

I think it's high time we start building many wearable computers with full video and souond. A bunch of geeks with these could help make sure the real footage is available. Steve Mann has alot to say on uses for wearable computers with video.

The Matrox Meteor II card in PC/104-Plus format with MJPEG compression doughter board could be used for capture. Storage could be to a set of 25GByte Travelstars from IBM. All the rest of the parts is old hat for wearable use. The only thing not there yet is the drivers for the Meteor II.

I think it's high time we start building many wearable computers with full video and souond. A bunch of geeks with these could help make sure the real footage is available. Steve Mann has alot to say on uses for wearable computers with video.

The Matrox Meteor II card in PC/104-Plus format with MJPEG compression doughter board could be used for capture. Storage could be to a set of 25GByte Travelstars from IBM. All the rest of the parts is old hat for wearable use. The only thing not there yet is the drivers for the Meteor II.

Uh, no need to envision :) Check out the top picture on this web page. I was in the fall 1999 version of this course. But we havn't updated the page yet.

Apparently, Steve has a display built into a pair of wire-frame bi-focals. I haven't actually seen it, as it is somewhat fragile (bond wires as structural elements!), but it is supposed to be rather inconspicuous.

I can't seem to find a link to the paper that describes it; however, it should be at http://wearcam.org

I do some work with Steve at the Wearable Computing lab. Very cool stuff -- the site above has quite a bit of material on both the technology and math of wearable computing, personal imaging, and so forth.

check out www.wearcam.org for related image-processing technology . High-bandwith version(not as comprehensive).

In a nutshell, Steve Mann takes images (well an image stream) from his wearable camera and stitches them together to create a seamless single image. He calls this system "painting with looks". The software is VideoOrbits and is downloadable as a tar.gz (rpm coming).

I think some pretty cool worlds could be created by combining painting with looks with Dr. Dersch's panorama software.

check out www.wearcam.org for related image-processing technology . High-bandwith version(not as comprehensive).

In a nutshell, Steve Mann takes images (well an image stream) from his wearable camera and stitches them together to create a seamless single image. He calls this system "painting with looks". The software is VideoOrbits and is downloadable as a tar.gz (rpm coming).

I think some pretty cool worlds could be created by combining painting with looks with Dr. Dersch's panorama software.

check out www.wearcam.org for related image-processing technology . High-bandwith version(not as comprehensive).

In a nutshell, Steve Mann takes images (well an image stream) from his wearable camera and stitches them together to create a seamless single image. He calls this system "painting with looks". The software is VideoOrbits and is downloadable as a tar.gz (rpm coming).

I think some pretty cool worlds could be created by combining painting with looks with Dr. Dersch's panorama software.

Likely much better funded too... :)
Steve Mann
WearComp7

Check out the second URL for a cool wearable computer. Most people wouldn't notice, or if they did, they would think you're a spook cos of the wires.