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National Car Tracking System Proposed For US
bl968 writes "The Newspaper is reporting that the leading private traffic enforcement camera vendors are seeking to establish a national vehicle tracking system in the United States using existing red-light and speed enforcement cameras. The system would utilize Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) to track vehicles passing surveillance cameras operated by these companies. If there are cameras positioned correctly the company will enable images and video to be taken of the driver and passengers. The nice thing in their view is that absolutely no warrants are needed. To gain public acceptance, the surveillance program is being initially sold as an aid for police looking to solve Amber Alert cases and locate stolen cars."
At least here in Florida, the law states that one can not obscure one's license plate. But, if one recesses the license plate into the vehicle and uses proper lighting, then the cameras can not see the plate, but the police on the ground can, therefore the plate is not obscured.
Also, in places like Florida where only a rear plate is used, getting a picture of both the plate and the driver will require the use of two cameras.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
A huge red flag when commercial entities want to enforce laws. But that's what happens when the Governments start outsourcing.
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
With some clever signal processing you could distinguish roughly the shape and size of the vehicle.
It doesn't take a lot of imagination to then see that if you could gather data from enough of these sensors, you could track a particular vehicle over the course of many miles.
That is a big if. Those sensors are not very precise and I'm not sure it could do much between differentiation of vehicles. I have been stopped at a light and had at least three near identical cars of very close length and weight right around me. I don't believe that the sensors would be able to differentiate between models that are even four years apart from each other.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
The vidicon tube is long gone, all these cameras are solid sate which means they are sensitive to near infrared. Conveniently enough, the exact same type produced by LEDs.
It should be possible to create a high brightness license plate frame which will overload the camera and just leave a very white rectangle where the plate should be in the photo.
Still, private companies should not be in the business of enforcing laws or tracking citizens. Private companies do not answer to the public and are not regulated in the same way a police officer is.
Those of us in the UK have been recorded in this way for quite some time now. The police have been happily rolling out nationwide ANPR tracking cameras and databases, and you've guessed it, they rolled it into a neat deal that has managed to avoid much Parliamentary scrutiny using technicalities. There has been a little consternation about that from a few liberal (small 'l') MPs and the Information Commissioner, but right now the good guys are a bit busy to put up serious opposition, what with trying to stop our entire way of life from collapsing because of the impending economic implosion and fighting even nastier surveillance/database measures like the National Identity Register and the National DNA Database.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Allowed? They do it anyway.
Been there done that. Worked with a company that did traffic sensors and could see the waveforms from vehicles. We could and did identify makes and models of cars. BUT take that same car and drive north or south over rough road for a while and you get a different waveform ! (Hint the car is now magnetized differently). Anyway yes you could identify specific cars of the set the company owned. But this would not extrapolate to those same models in the wild driven differently or with a different magnetic history. As just driving the car will change the waveform.
Nope. The sensors detect the change in inductance of the loop and do a "presence / no presence" decision. Google "Reno A&E" for all the details on loop detectors. The "signal" from a loop will vary depending on loop size, shape (round, rectangle, diamond, quadrupole (figure 8)), length of the lead-in wires, depth of the loop in the pavement, height of the vehicle above the ground (ie your lowered honda civic might have a bigger signal than the 3/4 ton pickup with the off road lift kit. Vehicle speed will change the signal, as will alignment in the lane.
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
You get tickets for missing front plates? I have been driving a car for 11 years without a front plate and I have not got a single ticket in that time.
I think it's a state-by-state thing. Some want both and some only require one.
Apparently you aren't aware that the FBI mandated legislation such that all tires manufactured in the US have RFID chips in them.
This was done some time ago, and by now, most cars have this.
The OP's premise was quite correct, in that this sensing could be done now, and distinguish your car from other similar models. It's really only a matter of time before this happens.
Welcome to the internet. People here aren't known for telling the truth and like to cut and paste cute stories like this over and over. In fact, here you go, I will do a search on a random phrase from the story ... and viola, here is where it was originally posted in 2007:
http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2007/10/bloodsuckers-in-blue.html