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DVRs for Cop Cars
AEton writes "News.com is reporting that IBM is developing digital video recorders for cop cars. The systems involve a digital video camera and reusable hard drives which police officers will take with them on their shifts; centralized servers with up to 3.5 TB of storage will hold recordings. The cameras continuously record and cache old video in a "Tivo-like" fashion; tapes will start from three to five minutes before the cop turned on the recorder. Unbiased, high-quality recording could have a compelling social effect; and at the very least, we're headed for HDTV Cops."
An interesting concept, but no.. what they're pointing out is that the video would be run ALL THE TIME, and discarded after 5 minutes. When the cop presses "record" the machine would save the video from 5 minutes before the record button was pressed in addition to all the current video until the "stop recording" command is sent.
You obviously haven't seen TiVo. It's constantly recording the current channel, you can rewind even without explicitly pressing record. These would apparently work the same.
Not sure I understand, this means that after you press "record", the DVR travels three to five minutes backward in time and catches you in the loo a few minutes prior? Surely the video would spool to disk 3 to 5 minutes after it was recorded. Maybe I can use one of these after I get pulled over for speeding to travel back in time and brake in advance...
Basically the box will be continually recording into a looped buffer. When you hit the record button it will retrive the last 5 minutes from the buffer and archive that plus everything from the moment you hit record onwards. So you get the minutes before the button is hit as well as everything afterwards.
This is similar to the way TiVo works - it is continually recording TV into a 20 minute looped buffer (until you switch channels) so you can actually "rewind" to a point before you started watching a program.
Sailing over the event horizon
This kind of thing Long overdue in Austin
The system works just as described: The system is always recording to a programmable-length buffer; once the officer cuts his disco lights on, the buffer becomes a permanent file and current events are appended to it.
I didn't ask any questions about how easy it was to erase files off the system, but I remember seeing a keypad on the unit and the guy I brought the bike to did enter a code before he got into any of the menus. It would be easy enough give those codes to the station chiefs, but not the patrol officers.
This is not my sandwich.
The real reason police officers have these cameras in their cars is for the single officer who pulls over a suspect alone in the middle of nowhere.
If you research it, it was the police officers who wanted these in their cars, as they were tired of having single officers getting shot in traffic stops, without a single shred of evidence. Now that the police have these cameras in their cars (sealed and protected) they've been able to catch those offenders and people have begun to think twice about turning a speeding ticket into murder of a police officer.
For the safety it offers, you'll be hard pressed to find a police officer who does not love the security the in-car cameras give them.
The navy did a study on this and even after placing a hdd in the huge degaussing coil that they use to to defauss ships after their tours they were still able to recover nearly 90% of data using Electron Force Microscopy technology. Unless the platter is physically destroyed the data CAN be recovered. Multipass data errasers are likewise not effective as the magnetic domains can be checked back 8 or more generations, combined with the fact that the head never passes over exactly the same spot and short of physical destruction you can't be assured of data erasal, so minor tampering like using a magnet will have virtuall zero effect.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
This concept has been around for a few years. In some railroad locomotives, virtually identical devices have been installed. They look out the front window of the locomotive, and also record whistle noises. This way, when Joe Sixpack says to the judge "Honest, he didn't blow the whistle, I didn't see him coming," they can pop the tape in and see that Joe pulled up to the railroad crossing, looked right at the train, and then decided to make a run for it before getting pulverized by the train, while the whistle was blowing. Those tapes are watermarked quite well, it was that intent so they would stand up in court.
I sure don't want an electronic/gun mechanism like that in my house...
Burglar enters my home at night, pulls gun on me
ME: Hey, oops...wait, lemme find my watch, I took it off when I had a shower...just a minute...got my gun, but, need that watch..where did I put that darned thing...OH, you already stole it? Well hell, take the gun...its a set....
Nope...need guns to stay 100% mechanical...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I'm working on the same type of DVR product at the company I'm with. We're starting small, but already have one paying customer, and a handful of trial units in the field with local law enforcement agencies.
The response is excellent, both the officers and their supervisors love the units. One of our trial units has already captured a fight between officers and a suspect, who accused them of brutality and harassment, and the video clearly shows that the officers were doing only what was necessary to restrain the suspect.
We have a shorter pre-event recording time, since we're currently using RAM to buffer the video. We're using ruggedized (IBM) laptop hard drives for our storage medium.
Of course there are plenty of ways an officer could defeat the system: smash the camera, beat the suspect behind the car since the camera faces forward, drive the car off a cliff, cut wires to the unit, etc. -- but it still offers a new measure of protection for both the officers and the people they come in contact with.
>So they hit "record" at the end of five minutes.
No, there is no "hitting record" here. Read the article - the recording starts when the lights go on.
If my math is correct, the video they record with this system equates to about 734MB/hr or 208KB/sec. That's roughly VCD quality using MPEG-1 compression. Not anywhere near the bitrate needed for HDTV.
Yes.. that's a nitpic. So sue me.
I'm single, and have no kids...so, no problems there, but, I was raised in a house with a gun, and I was taught by my Dad a respect for firearms, and how to use them..etc. I knew where they were, and never touched it except for once, when I was about 13 or so...home alone during the summer, and some bum came knocking on the front door,wanting some water...I had the gun in my hand safety off...told him to leave. He finally left...I put the gun back, and told my folks.
I guess it depends on your kids, and how your raise them around fire arms. I grew up in the southern part of the US, and guns down here are part of life...lots of hunting..target practice...etc. Most everyone I knew, had guns in their houses, and my friends and I all knew where they were...but had been taught they were not toys...and would have had hell to pay if we got one and it wasn't an emergency.
I actually did not purchase a gun for myself till I was well out of college...I partied a lot, and just didn't want to risk having a party and one getting pulled out..etc. But, I grew up, and when I felt responsible enough to own one...I started buying. I have had carry concealed licenses in the past...don't have one now since a move..but, may get one. If I have kids, I'll be more cautious about them and all, but, will also teach my children gun safety, and how to respect them, much as my parents and my friends' parents did....
But, all that being said...not everyone should be a gun owner. It is a major responsibility...if you can't trust your kids..don't have them...if you have ANY doubts that if you have to pull a gun that you will shoot and shoot to kill...you do not need to have one. I've thought long and hard about this, and have taken safety courses, and regularly practice shooting...I like to think I'll know what I'll do if faced with the decision. You never know, but, I've mentally drilled myself on what I need to do. If someone is in my house, and threatening me, my friends, or someday, my family, I have no moral problem at all and emptying 16 shots into the assailent (sp?), and not checking the body till I've slapped another clip in....
It definitely is an individual decision, and not one to be taken lightly.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........