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Gunshot Tracking Cameras to be Deployed in LA
apok04 writes "Get out your tinfoil hats (and ski masks). A USC engineer uses his expertise with nerve cells to create a surveillance system that can recognize the sound of a nearby gunshot - and identify the shooter. In a unique pilot program, L.A. and Chicago will deploy test units in high-crime areas. The creator emphasizes that the system cannot recognize voices or words, but his previous research into speech recognition systems suggests otherwise."
The system can then locate, precisely, where the shot was fired, turn a camera to center the shooter in the camera viewfinder and make a 911 call to a central police station.
If the shooter is still there, she deserves to be caught.
According to the article, this device is listening for the entire sound pattern of the gunshot, not just the initial explosion, which makes it much less likely to mistake other loud noises for shooting.
So it may be difficult to fool it unless you can also simulate the whole shooting sequence (think of Matrix's bullet time).
I guess FPS game developers can use one of these to create realistic gunshot sounds.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
As I recall it turned out that the company doing this was closely affiliated with one of the local politicos and the system was basically bunk. I don't remember how it all played out, but maybe someone else out there does?
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
I remember seeing a system like this years ago. I'm quite sure in the 1980's! Possibly on that Beyond 2000 science show from Australia (we get weird shows here sometimes). I wondered why it was never used it seems like a great invention.
Why so long to get a system like this produced?
Put it in Iraq attached to a machine gun, calibrated to shoot at the sound of an AK-47 not an M16. Since it seems to be able to tune out other explosive noises why not refine it ever further to just a certain gun type?
The device is listening for the entire sound pattern of the gunshot, not just the initial explosion, which makes it much less likely to mistake other loud noises for shooting.
And there you go, knocking it down. Well done, but you failed to actually make a point.
Actually, I think what the original poster was trying to say is that once a system like that is in place, its uses may "vary" a little from its intital "sold to the public as" message.
They already said that the designer of this device has worked on speech detection devices as well. Who's to say that after this system is installed, a nice happy firmware upgrade is done, and now the system listens for key words such as: murder, shoot, kill, government, president, etc etc...
The American people should be up in arms over systems like this, and the red light and speed cameras as well. It encourages abuse of the system and promotes lazy and dishonest law enforcement.
And do we need an example of dishonest and lazy law enforcement: In the mid 1970s, three women were raped, sodomized and beaten in their home for 14 hours, regardless of the repeated phone calls made to police by the women any chance they got. What did the police department have to say about this: Warren v District of Columbia: "A government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services such as police protection to any particular individual".
Nice... This is the same government that wants to increase its revenue with speed and red-light cameras, and prevent you from defending yourself with firearms.
-- If we don't stand up for our rights, now, there will be no right to stand up for them later.