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3-D Surveillance Technology
scubacuda writes "According to this Technology Review article, a new surveillance technology called Video Flashlight melds 3-D models from background scenes. This "tweening process" allows security persononnel to fly around a subject such as a pedestrian, getting a detailed look without jumping between widely separated views."
That's just flat out cool.
This is a direct descendant of the technique used in the Matrix.
From the rumormill, this technique will be used in the Matrix 2 to create even better effects than was done previously.
I have been pwned because my
I remember a court case where some politician was reported in the paper to have been with a prostitute.
Later on some late night talk show they got footage of him just walking along to some one and talking to them.
Then they used software like this to place him on a different background going over to a prostitute.
It was so convincing he took them to court for making it.
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
You "DO" see all of someone. As the article says, this technology just uses hundreds of cameras, and merges their information in realtime. Of course the criminal might notice the couple hundred cameras as he walks down the street .... but at least you'll have a 3D view of him as he steals one of them.
I can foresee a bright future for this technology in the pr0n industry... Combine it with a VR helmet, and you're on the way to re-enact some cool scenes from Strange Days!
-- It's always darker before it goes pitch black.
Yeah, I know they say that they are using multiple cameras and just using tweening to fill in gaps between frames, but when you start sticking little stuff in, how do you know what's real and what's not?
Made me think of the character in Stranger in a Strange Land, can't remember her name, but she was a trained witness of some sort and would not testify, for example that a house was white on all sides unless she had seen all sides of the house and then she wouldn't testify that the sides of the house she could no longer see had stayed white. Granted, that's a little extreme, but the average Joe is gonna believe what he sees is true, and this is mucking with that truth just a little bit. If this is used in court, is an expert going to be able to testify that only certain parts were added? Wouldn't that seem a little odd to a jury, "Hi, we're going to show you a videotape of something that happened and you're going to have to take it as gospel...AFTER we tell you that we added a few little bits to it."?
Course, I'm paranoid, if someone tells me they mucked with it a little bit, I'm gonna assume they added exactly what they wanted me to see...
Denver Isuzu Suzuki
While the film itself was pretty damn cool, we should bear in mind that the world it depicted would be pretty damn shit to actually live in.
Only if you knew what's going on. It's an exact simulation of real life - you'd have no idea if you were in it. It wouldn't be "shit to actually live in" - it'd be the same as our world.
It wouldn't be "the same", it would be pretending to be the same as our world.
It's like when you've got a friend who's living in a complete fantasy world: he might be perfectly happy right now but, as his friend, you have a duty to at least try making him see reality because if he realizes it for himself years later, he'll bitterly regret pissing away valuable years of his life working for and believing in something that actually wasn't at all what he thought it was.
One of my friends used to work for Microsoft.
If this fantasy world is convincing enough for everyone to believe it, I don't really have a problem with it. Remember Cypher - he'd rather live in the Matrix than in the real world, and I suspect most people would feel the same. Steak vs. goop? Hmm... I think I'll live in fantasy world, thanks.
But perhaps it's about leaving your mark on the world, the real world. Cows might be happy but, essentially, we've redirected them from their destiny to serve our ends.
I'm not saying that there is a specific point to life but, getting very minimalistic about it, you could say that our "purpose" is to pass on our genes in the ongoing dance of evolution. If we are not at least partially in control of our destinies we no longer get to participate in that, the continuance of our lines.
It's not so much a question of Steak vs. Goop but what you do with your goop.
First, a sensible editorial from the Vancouver Sun.
Second, some words from the Canadian privacy commissioner, in which he comes down on video surveillance.
Third, the cameras are ruled illegal.
Canada has a privacy commissioner who is independent of the government and police and who has one overriding concern above all else: ensuring that the constitutional privacy rights of the Canadian public are respected.
In the past, he's also prevented the government from creating a super database that merges all information from all sources -- police, medical, political, taxation, etc -- into one system. So ruled because it would make it far too easy for the various branches of government to look at data they shouldn't have access to.
Thank goodness Canada's got the foresight and commonsense to have an independent commissioner!
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
Tweening is just a specific type of interpolation (in graphics, anyway).
It involings interpolation of vector coordinates, like morphing is interpolcation of bitmaps.
"Faith is the last resort of a desperate man" - Me
It would maybe be useful for intelligence gathering or planning.
----- Whats wrong with this picture? http://www.revoh.org:1234/whatswrong
From the last paragraph of the article:
But early versions have already been installed at U.S. Army Intelligence headquarters and are under consideration for New York City's three airports--perhaps bringing us all a step closer to living inside the Matrix.
If by "living inside the Matrix" you mean living in a world where our every action is monitored by technology then, yes, we are getting closer to that.
I don't doubt that this thing has legitimate uses, but I'm not about to jump up and praise every single development in survelance technology. I think Big Brother's eyes are allready a little too sharp, and I'd rather see them make improvements on how they apply their technology. There was no technical reason for intellegence to miss plans for Sept. 11th, and no array of videocameras etc. would have helped. The problems were organizational, and I don't think sufficient improvements have been made in that area.
Bottom line: you get watched, the terrorists go unnoticed.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
Let's face it. Security is a friggin' boring job. I know people who have done it. About the only thing that keeps it from driving the people doing it completely insane with boredom is the benefit of zooming in the cameras on women with lots of cleavage showing.
So you can imagine how this software will be abused.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
Check out this paper by Chen and Williams. In this work done back at Apple in '93 they describe how to create intermediate camera angles from multiple static images.
Of course, the capacity to fly around the scene in real time had to wait until computers got a lot faster.
thad
I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.
I'm surprised nobody else has compared this to the "Esper" device used in Blade Runner, which allowed Deckard to "see around corners" in static images. Though, to be fair, I can't think of any *possible* way this could be done using only one image - unless the machine was extrapolating from extremely subtle shadows and reflections on other objects on the picture. Even then you'd get a very crude image of unseen objects at best.
Freedom: "I won't!"
I really wish someone who knew more about this would post, my super charged troglodyte mind tells me it works something like this.
/**c**\
/*-----*\
/**|+++|**\
you'll need at least 6 cameras:
the scene from above:
c**|*c*|***c
\**-----**/
\*******/
\**c**/
in this crude ascii drawing we have five cameras(c), there's another one below the middle one, so we could say 6. there the box in the middle is the scene, and the diagonal lines is the cameras viewing frustum. the (*) is just for spacing, i couldn't make it work with spaces.
Each one actually contains two cameras, very close to each other to create a stereo effect, which presumably some software to extrapolate to create a 3d image.
The 3d image from any one camera would only be good for what it can see, so you'll have an extrusion, or unknown for what it can't. this is there the other cameras fall into place, they each can generate an image for what they know. Then though math and magic all the 3d images are combined to create one 3d image.
this is only a guess, maybe it works like this maybe not.
-Jon
this is my sig.
I remember a scene from Enemy of the State where the evil NSA geek takes a shot of Will Smith's shopping bag captured from a lingerie store security camera, and rotates it in 3D, filling in information as he goes along. I was like, "this is soo much bullshit. Typical Jerry Bruckheimer film - junk science all the way."
Well, I guess it wasn't totally bullshit. However, if I find out that the DNA pattern of an ideal brunette can be modeled using only one package of M&Ms, I'll have to shoot myself...
The Sarnoff corporation has more information available on their homepage, including a downloadable video clip of the the flashlight in action; available here.
When the movie "Outbreak" and its CG F/X with choppers hit the screens, I remember thinking "Wow, you can't tell what's real and what's not anymore. You really cannot tell the difference between a CG scene and a real one. I wonder how long it will take before news studios start using this to fabricate stories."
Upon which a friend of mine replied, "What makes you think they don't already?"
This could have some really awesome uses in Teleimmersion and Virtual Reality.
:)
Think about the last videoconference you attended: it was probably a far cry from being face to face. Adding simple stereo vision to that probably would not do much for interacting with your peers. However, a system like the following might change things.
Here's what I'd propose, if I could build my "dream system":
Set up the following:
*Two conference rooms equipped with the cameras mentioned in the article
*Optical See-through HMDs that the users would wear
*A very fast network connection between the two locations
*Software to make it work.
This way, individuals in disparate locations could walk around, talk to each other, and do everything but shake hands. Actually, get one of these and that might even be possible
You would also somehow do a similar trick with the audio to enable "private" conversations between individuals sitting next to each other.
This could be the first really useful immersive application. Think about how much travel time would be saved.
Any thoughts?
If they're going to be recording sections of the video, they'd do so from the raw stream, not the omputer generated 3D environment. This is just a better way of representing multiple camera shots of the same scene.
Dyolf Knip
This isn't about precise 3d imaging of each person wandering around.. it's about a model that's easier to work with.
Following people around using discrete cameras is not natural... it's difficult.
Using those cameras to create a more natural 3d environment for those monitoring to see what's going on will make it easier for security staff to have a good feel for what's up.
Oh yeah.. it's the end of privacy.
Hello.. if a camera can't see anything at any given moment, neither can the security guys.
So if your date is sitting around, they *can't* see it from your point of view accurately, because you would be obscuring the camera. What? The camera is above your head looking at your date? then you never had privacy in the first place.
The hologram thing is cool.. someone just has to invent the hologram
Conclusive proof of what?
The tweening is so the image looks smoother and more realistic, not to change what happened.
The matrix used tweening to calculate the images between images to make things look smoother and more pleasant instead of jerky.
Yes, it's an educated guess.. but the tweening doesn't place a guy in a room when he's not there, or make him open up a door that he never really touched.. it just makes it look better and more natural.
Really? why not?
The camera saw the bag from several angles over time as the guy walked away.
You then use a computer to model what the bag should look like from whatever angle. You aren't displaying anything you don't already know.
The incessant augmentation of police state powers is NOT a cool thing at all.
The way a lot of people around /. talk about these things, it's pretty clear that they don't ever expect to be the object of these new 'toys'. I find the complacent, pseudo-cool, abstract discussion of these matters to be almost as scary as this police state 'apparatus'.
Tell me people: just when do the warning bells go off in your heads (the 'crime' issue is always meant to sidetrack your critical reasoning powers, BTW)?
EON condensed matter distributed-computing project.