Camera Watch: Links to Public Webcams

Mikkeles writes "From an Associated Press story: 'It sounds like a chapter out of "Spy vs. Spy": Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have launched a project called Camera Watch that lists Internet cameras that monitor public spaces, letting Web surfers try the role of bored security guard.' The site permits searching for an available webcam in the geographical region (US) of your choice. About 600 webcams of 6000 in the pipe are now available."

Comments

Reminds me of a story

[slycer9]

...on http://www.e-sheep.com

Look at the story called 'spiders', the one about al quaida.

(Forgive me, it's early, haven't had coffee...not EVEN gonna try a link...so just cut n' paste).

False alarms?

[EvilOpie]

I wonder how they'll police this? Honestly, I think it's a good idea in theory, like especially when dealing with troublesome intersections that cause frequent accidents. Having the public watch the cams and call in accidents as soon as they happen could be a *very* good thing. But the problem is that you'd need someone to police the people viewing the cams to make sure that if they acted on what they saw (or think they saw) that it was a real and legitimate problem.

Or maybe I'm just misunderstanding the article. I guess that at first read through, "the role of bored security guard" makes it sound like you'll watch the cameras instead of the guards, but I guess that you could be watching them in addition to the guards/security that normally view them.

But if THAT is the case, then I guess this brings up the question, is this then just for entertainment value? You know it's a sad but true fact of life that if people saw something bad that happened, they'd just be like "oh, that sucks" or laugh or whatever, and then go on with life just being glad that it wasn't them.

Re:False alarms?

[PostItNote]

> I wonder how they'll police this?

"they" won't police anything. But it does mean that privacy, instead of being only for cops, is for nobody. Thus, it gives interested citizens a chance to "watch the watchmen". You'll note that the link for the story goes to PRIVACY.cmu.edu.

I view this technology as a democratization of the surveillance cameras that are ubiquitous in large areas. With this, anyone can get the data from the original source - no waiting for the police to release it, no FOX-ification. So why would you want to *police* this? Nobody is required to do anything based on what they see, it just gives people the ability to see in the first place.

I use the traffic webcams daily

[Shiifty]

I have 2 routes I can take to work. If my normal route, the fast highway is clogged up because of an accident or bad weather, I can take the normally somewhat slower alternate route. Gotta love technology.

Whats funny is when there is an accident, the operators zoom in with the cameras so you can see the damage up close LOL

Re:Slashdotted - here's the text

[ShieldW0lf]

Better to have everyone watching than to have the shadowy few watching... we might even feel better about ourselves and be a little easier on each other once we find out everyone else is just as fucked up as we are.

This is what TIA and Carnivore should be, if they are to be allowed to exist at all...

Transparent Society

[tarranp]

This is not a bad thing. David Brin actually discusses this in depth in his book Transparent Society."

A person watching the camera is no different than a person standing on the street corner watching people go by. Well there si a difference: the person watching on the web is a witness wwho cannot be intimidated into silence, and nobody knows if they are being watched in that public space.

I don't fear the loss of privacy, because there is no privacy in public spaces. I do like the idea that any would be wrongdoer does not know whether he is being watched or not.

Re:Transparent Society

[esme]

privacy is not the real issue here -- as you say, there is no privacy in public.

but our behavior in public, particulary in big cities, is generally anonymous. i have lived in big cities most of my life and have run into people out in public only a few times -- and only at places where we were both frequent visitors (grocery store, popular restaurant, etc.). in general, you almost never see anyone you know.

the transparent society would end the anonymity of our public behavior, and this has huge consequences.

with our current anonymity, we are not typically held accountable for our actions that are offensive, but fall short of breaking laws. cutting people off, being rude to waitresses, etc. are all very antisocial behaviors that are common in big cities because it's never anyone you know who you're trampling on. with a transparent society, your friends/family/boss/etc. could be watching you, so you become more accountable for this kind of behavior.

the other side of this is that it would become a lot easier to stalk people (either privately or as part of a government plot). and removing the anonymity of public behavior would have a huge impact on many political activities. for example, if you run a business and are trying to prevent your workers from organizing a union, your job gets a lot easier if you could see who your employees are meeting with after hours. of course, all the travel to meet with union organizers would be public, but it would be anonymous.

so it's all well and good to say that it's only public behavior so it's not a privacy issue. but in fact, there are a lot of issues surrounding privacy that are impacted by the existence of a police-state aparatus.

-esme

Re:Transparent Society

[krysith]

There is a significant difference if the camera is hidden. When I see someone else on my street corner, I know that I am being watched. It makes me less likely to A) commit a crime B) talk to myself C) have sex with my girlfriend on the steps or D) pick my nose.

I think that having hidden cameras in a public space is not an illegal thing, but certainly a rude one. The middle of a field in a national forest is certainly a public place, but there is an expectation of privacy if no one is there.

Re:a great congestion reduction tool

[pmz]

wherever else there might be congestion, people can adjust their travel behavior accordingly.

Agreed. However, a camera need not have 1600x1200 resolution or whatever for this purpose. A TV-quality camera (at best) would be sufficient to discern that cars are bumper to bumper on the highway.

Re:a great congestion reduction tool

[AJWM]

Actually that Denver area system goes back to a CDOT initiative five or six years ago. Traffic speed sensors in the highways will trip an alarm if the average speed goes out of range (adjustable to allow for known factors) and a traffic engineer can bring up a view on one of the nearby cameras. There are a bunch of other inputs (including weather sensors, etc) and outputs (the changeable text signs over some of the highways, low power AM broadcast systems near the Eisenhower Tunnel, Vail Pass, etc...).

I worked on some of the overall software design and some of the implementation back in '98.

Useful but not always entertaining

[Tacoguy]

I think this fits cause a store is a privately owned place with public access. I recently installed a system with 4 panning cameras in an antique store that was having very bad shoplifting problems. There is a monitor in plain view of people entering as well as tape recording and streaming via a web server. The shoplifting instantly stopped. Motion detectors autodial the 2 owners via wireless cell at night in case of a break in and they can instantly view activity inside the store via the Web. A UPS powers the system (including illumination) in case of electrical failure. Not entertaining but very useful. And a way cool project :-)

Dead Site Soon

[Atryn]

This sounds like a perfect example of a site you would expect to be filled with dead links in about 8 months. This is espescially so as it is coming from a university and is therefore likely tied to some sort of research grant which will eventually run out leaving nobody paid to maintain the database....

Re:a great congestion reduction tool

[Politburo]

Off the top of my head, I would say your claims are greatly exaggerated. For the record, I live in the NY/NJ Metro Area, and while we do rank lower on traffic studies due to having perhaps the best region-wide transit systems in the nation, there is still plenty of traffic to go around. The PM peak period in this area is approximately 3:30 pm - 7:30 pm.

Re:Shouldn't it be the other way around?

[sjames]

IIRC, the suits are over cameras for arrest bookings, and are based on the following:

Jail cameras are acceptable because criminals lose some rights such as an expectation of privacy, voting in a federal election, etc

The people on these cameras are to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, therfore they have not given up those rights and should not be held up to public humilliation.

I notice that I hear a lot more about booking cameras than those in the jails. Perhaps that's because the decision makers know they'd be sued into oblivion or put on the other side of the bars if the public knew how the prison officials behaved.

Secure communications

[lateralus]

So here is my idea:

Could one collect the information streaming from these cameras and use it as a source for random number generation? Over a large number of Webcams the rate of information change must be huge. At any given point you could also single out darkened cams and use their CCD noise too. Doesn't sound too difficult to do (for someone else, someone with brains that is). How would this compare to typing randomly and jiggling my mouse as a source of random numbers?

Re:a great congestion reduction tool

[crusty_architect]

Working as an architect for a V Large ISP it has been interesting to watch the "peak hour" for email go from 1-2 hours at night (1997) to a flat-line peak period of 8 hours from 9am to 5pm. We have always designed and built for peaks, now the peak is *all day*.

CCTV in the UK

[garyok]

I live in Glasgow and we have CCTV cameras throughout the city centre (and quite a bit beyond), checking on us all the time and making us think harder about behaving nicely. If I could see what the folks monitoring the systems could see, I'd be a lot happier about the surveillance.

Making all the CCTVs in a city centre webcams is the answer to "Who watches the watchers?" We do. If the naughty guard is zooming in on the booty shots or looking in folks windows we can check the time, report it directly, and get them the disciplining they need. It'd be a balance to the one-sided oppressive feeling the current systems engender. I wouldn't need any sort of control over where they were pointed, just being able to check out (whenever I felt like it) what they were watching would be good enough for me.

It'd bring folks back to the city centre here, too. When they realise how boring it is these days. And they can see the lack of anything happening from the comfort of their desk.