Slashdot Mirror
Shadow Analysis Could Spot Terrorists
Hugh Pickens writes "An engineer at Jet Propulsion Labs says it should be possible to identify people from the way they walk — a technique called gait analysis, whose power lies in the fact that a person's walking style is very hard to disguise. Adrian Stoica has written software that recognizes human movement in aerial and satellite video footage by isolating moving shadows and using data on the time of day and the camera angle to correct shadows that are elongated or foreshortened. In tests on footage shot from the sixth floor of a building, Stoica says his software was indeed able to extract useful gait data. Extending the idea to satellites could prove trickier, though. Space imaging expert Bhupendra Jasani at King's College London says geostationary satellites simply don't have the resolution to provide useful detail. 'I find it hard to believe they could apply this technique from space,' says Jasani." Comments on the article speculate on the maximum resolution possible from KH-11 and KH-12 spy satellites.
The Nirvana fallacy is the logical error of comparing actual things with unrealistic, idealized alternatives. It can also refer to the tendency to assume that there is a perfect solution to a particular problem.
By creating a false dichotomy that presents one choice which is obviously advantageous--while at the same time being completely implausible--a person using the nirvana fallacy can attack any opposing idea (reformed social welfare programs, for example) because it is imperfect. The choice is not between real world solutions and utopia; it is, rather, a choice between one realistic possibility and another which is merely better.
An example of the nirvana fallacy would be opposing a policy that reduces poverty because it does not completely eliminate poverty.
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Also, what control does this give the gov't? To make you walk funny? "Better that a thousand terrorists go freely about their bloody business than for one free person to have a recorded gait"?
While we're at it, we should remove all the wire taps we're using against the mafia and gangs, 'cause we're violating their privacy. They should be able to conduct their business without the prying eyes and ears of big brother.
*groan* i can't wait for Obama to swear in so all this paranoia and ego-centrism might go down a notch.
Also, not all slopes are slippery... or sloped.
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
How on earth did a Monty Python reference get modded +5 informative?!