Camera Watch: Links to Public Webcams

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Camera Watch: Links to Public Webcams

Posted by michael on Friday September 5, 2003 @07:35AM from the watching-us-watching-them dept.

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."

18 of 194 comments (clear)

a great congestion reduction tool by civilengineer · 2003-09-05 07:37 · Score: 5, Insightful

if we have a lot of these at movie theaters, airport queues, and wherever else there might be congestion, people can adjust their travel behavior accordingly.

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1. Re:a great congestion reduction tool by Politburo · 2003-09-05 07:58 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  On the surface, yes. But your nick says "civil engineer". Surely you are familiar with the concept of peak period demand.
  
  For most infrastructure that we build, it goes unused for much of the time. There is a small percentage of time where the infrastructure is pushed to the limits. For transportation, this is rush hour, for power grids, it's hot summer days, for movie theatres, it's premiere night, etc.
  
  Usually, it is extremely difficult to abate peak period effects. They do not exist because that is when everyone "wants" to go somewhere or do something, they exist because that is the only time most people can use, or need to use, the resource in question. Most employers frown if you come in at 6 am, or 11 am, and if you leave at 3 pm, or 8 pm. You don't need a ton of juice to power your A/C when it's nighttime.
2. Re:a great congestion reduction tool by EZmagz · 2003-09-05 07:58 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Interesting you should say that. The Minnesota Dept. Of Transportation (MnDOT) has links to all of their cameras on the highway over here...
  For me at least, since I get the pleasure of driving across the metro everyday going to and from work, it can be a godsend. There's a saying around here that's pretty fitting: There's two seasons in MN...winter, and road construction. It's definitely convenient to be able to check from my laptop here at work and see what the roads are like before I head home and fight the other 9 million bad drivers.
  Of course it's not foolproof, as they'll always be accidents that aren't on camera. If nothing else though, it makes for fun viewing when you're bored out of your mind on a Friday afternoon.
  
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3. Re:a great congestion reduction tool by Politburo · 2003-09-05 08:36 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Management, of course.
  
  The thing is, a lot of business that goes on requires the services of another business. If I show up to work at 6 am, and a colleague at another company, or even a coworker, shows up at 11 am, that is 5 hours of my work day where I do not have access to their knowledge and/or decision making power. Likewise, if I leave at 3 pm, there may be workers who work later who then are shut out from me. By attempting to have everyone in and out at around the same time, you maximize the time that everyone is in the office together, theoretically maximizing the productivity of your office.
No.... by CGP314 · 2003-09-05 07:37 · Score: 5, Insightful

sounds like a chapter out of "Spy vs. Spy"

Sounds more like 1984 to me.
1. Re:No.... by WegianWarrior · 2003-09-05 08:16 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Sounds more like 1984 to me.
  
  Wrong, on two things. Firstly, this isn't "big brother" watching you.. if anything, it's "little brother". Secondly, it's not in your home, but in public areas. You did know that people could see you in public, didn't you?
  
  I can't see why people get worked up over the fact that there are webcams in public places. The moment you leave your home someone is likely to see you - and if you plan on doing things you would rather that no one saw, you should have done them before you went out. If anything, cameras in public places can be a good thing - in downtown Oslo (thats in Norway) they placed a couple of cameras in one most popular parks for junkies, and look and behold; even thought the junkies still hang out there (everyone has to be somewhere I guess), they don't harass the other people walking by no more.
  
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I go here... by Wireless+Joe · 2003-09-05 07:38 · Score: 4, Informative

I like to use the World View of Live Webcams to get my voyeuristic fix. It's kept fairly up to date, and has hundreds of cams.
In other news...... by losttoy · 2003-09-05 07:39 · Score: 5, Insightful

....they were slashdotted within seconds. But seriously, how would you handle a DoS on a network of webcams? Anything over the internet is reliable enough for security monitoring given attacks like DoS/DDoS?
Shouldn't it be the other way around? by CGP314 · 2003-09-05 07:40 · Score: 5, Insightful

The site -- http://privacy.cs.cmu.edu/dataprivacy/projects/cam watch -- notes that a few of the "jail cams" had been disabled due to lawsuits.

We don't want to let you see what happens in a jail. We do want to keep an eye on you so we can more easily put you in one.
1. Re:Shouldn't it be the other way around? by CGP314 · 2003-09-05 08:08 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  If you think that most of the 2x10^6 people in prison are there because they are 'dangerous criminals' you are very, very wrong. More than half are there for drug offences.
Next reality show by BillLeeLee · 2003-09-05 07:42 · Score: 5, Funny

I think Fox is gonna license the camera footage as a new reality tv series "World's most exciting random camera footage."

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1. Re:Next reality show by RevMike · 2003-09-05 07:48 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I heard about that. I think it comes on right after "When Animals Attack Buildings Collapsing on Police Chases."
  Every time I see that Simpson's episode from the future, I wait for Marge to say "Fox moved to soft core porn so gradually, no one even noticed." That always cracks me up.
False alarms? by EvilOpie · 2003-09-05 07:43 · Score: 5, Interesting

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.

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I use the traffic webcams daily by Shiifty · 2003-09-05 07:43 · Score: 4, Interesting

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
Also lets terrorists.... by losttoy · 2003-09-05 07:44 · Score: 4, Funny

.... watch public places sitting in a cybercafe or from the hills of Afghanistan!!!
Existing city webcam project by Mr.+Darl+McBride · 2003-09-05 07:45 · Score: 5, Informative

If this interests you, also check out CincyStreet.com. They have an index with dozens and dozens of cameras from many different US cities.
I discovered this a short while ago myself, and was surprised to find one within just half a mile of my own home, just off a street on my regular commute. I come within a hair's breadth of appearing on camera every morning, and I never knew it.
I keep a couple locations on shortcuts, and sometimes I check out the sunrise in other states over my morning coffee.
We need one more camera... by H0NGK0NGPH00EY · 2003-09-05 07:52 · Score: 4, Funny

Too bad there isn't a webcam on their server, so we could all watch it go up in smoke live.

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Transparent Society by tarranp · 2003-09-05 08:02 · Score: 5, Interesting

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.