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R2-D2: Mall Cop
theodp writes "'The night watchman of the future,' explains the NY Times' John Markoff, 'is 5 feet tall, weighs 300 pounds and looks a lot like R2-D2 – without the whimsy. And will work for $6.25 an hour.' California-based Knightscope has developed a mobile robot known as the K5 Autonomous Data Machine as a safety and security tool for corporations, as well as for schools and neighborhoods. 'But what is for some a technology-laden route to safer communities and schools,' writes Markoff, 'is to others an entry point to a post-Orwellian, post-privacy world.'"
I'm sure its nothing that a can of spray-paint and some bubble-gum can't deal with
history repeats itself
this is just a placeholder till i send back my real sig from the future.
So they get slightly smaller, remain the same weight, and have a different look.
If Apple releases such a thing and calls it "the future", they are flamed for only changing looks and making it slighty smaller....
Weird...
Oh, right, Slashdot:
I for one welcome our new, R2-D2-looking, overweight overlords of nightly surveillance!
Just put your Guy Fawks mask on and aim for the head!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
While I appriciate your attempt, it's hardly the best you could do.
From the master:
"As laser-wielding robots home in on his body heat, MacGyver creates a fake heat signature by using magnets wrapped in burning paper. He opens several telephone handsets to get the magnets, and finds paper and matches in the science lab he is in. Once aflame, he throws one piece of burning paper, with a magnet wrapped inside, at each robot. The magnets stick to the metal of the robots. With each robot "tagged," they home in on each other and destroy one another." (e01s02)
Exterminate!!!
“We have a different perspective,” Mr. Li said. “We don’t want to think about ‘RoboCop’ or ‘Terminator,’ we prefer to think of a mash up ‘Batman,’ ‘Minority Report’ and R2-D2.”
I guess ultimately this product will be a whimsical vigilante that will seal you in a hole in the ground if it thinks you're going to spit on the sidewalk?
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
That video mock-up with the epic battle music makes the company out as being run by a bunch of excited teenage boys, or something. Pretentious and lacking of seriousness.
Signature intentionally left blank.
Could be worse
I'm sure its nothing that a can of spray-paint and some bubble-gum can't deal with.
Don't get to cocky about your options in an orwellian/cyberpunk future.
The corps in turn are sure your spray-paint and bubble-gum tactic is nothing 99.999% reliability facial-recognition + cell-phone tracking + behavioural-and-movement-pattern-recognition + god-knows-what can't deal with by tracking you down, sueing you into next wednesday, locking your creditcards/bankaccounts for that specific mall (all all others connected to the same megacorp and data-exchange conglumerate), putting you on a special surveillance & potential terrorist threat list, ban you from accessing gated communities of type X,Y and Z until further notice and upping your rent for being a threat to society all for spraying and gumming up their new survelliance & minion control bot toy.
Just saying.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
from over a year ago... what's next? an article about the exciting new technology of marketing to people based on where their eyes are gazing throughout a store... again?
Can we stop with the schill slashbegging for venture capital?
Don't patronize malls. Go to your local stores instead - and support them before they get swallowed up by giant faceless, evil retail chains.
Shopping malls are already dehumanized temples of consumerism, even without the robots. Those who know what social interaction is avoid these places like the plague anyway...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
If that thing costs $6.25 an hour to operate then it's a complete rip off. How the hell does that tin can cost that much to operate?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Awaits update to to electromagnetic counter measures! Seriously I could take this thing out with a microwave.
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
Four... three... two... one... I am now authorized to use physical force!
In particular, they need to delete "yesterday's tape" except for events submitted to the human police for a prosecution.
This is what Canadian law requires for business information not needed for explicit, agreed-upon business purposes. Bell, for example, can't divulge my address to a third party without my permission, and must delete it after the business relationship has come to an end.
We may need a law or a decision setting out the limits of what one implicitly consents to in entering a privately owned place open to the public: different jurisdictions are more or less protective of shoppers' privacy in malls, where the problem has first shown up.
--dave
davecb@spamcop.net
They're trying to sell it as a friendly R2-D2, not the evil Dalek.
I'm reminded of something else.
Technoli
... just the entry to the post-employment world.
The most alarming aspect to this article isn't the stupid robot that no one wants, but the fact that there's a company out there that's trying to build robots to replace people, on a per hour basis. I imagine places like Home Depot will want a robot to greet/answer questions, and perhaps The People would too. Hell, look at how self-checkout at Walmart is a hit.
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
“We founded Knightscope after what happened at Sandy Hook,” said William Santana Li
Seriously! How is an unarmed rolling video camera going to stop some idiot with a gun. Most of the time these gun toting phyco's are looking for fame to spread their "message" this will only make it worse.
The only solutions to guns are to 1.) keep the crazy's from getting guns 2.) Make sure trusted people with guns are there to stop them if step 1 fails. 3.) Make it hard for them to get at valuables (people or stuff) even if they have a gun through physical security. Anything else is just a waste of time and money IMHO.
"The system will have a video camera, thermal imaging sensors, a laser ... and a microphone."
Okay, so it's a "laser range finder" and not a death ray, but my world now potentially includes hostile robots shooting lasers at me, which is neat (or terrifying?).
So, no changes from the present, then.
FTFA:
Mr. Rotenberg . . . acknowledged, however, that K5’s looks were benign enough. “It doesn’t look like Arnold Schwarzenegger,” he said. “Unless he was rolled over and pressed into a ball.”
No, it looks like the Aperture Science defense turrets. Not very comforting, actually.
There was this boss 80s movie called Chopping Mall about mall security robots killing some teens that snuck into the mall at night to eat pizza and make love.
This story reminds me of that horror movie. Except the teenager part. And the killing part.
But totally the mall security robots part!
--- rapper/producer/bachelorette party stripper
mall cops for the most part are not real cops and they have little to no law enforcement power.
Speed Trap cameras are not real police either. You seem to suppose that this is to protect you, or has anything to do with the needs of society.
It doesn't and I will bet that what "mlts" is saying will come to pass sooner rather than later. Likely garbed in some "we need it to defeat the ter'rists scenario."
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
They could have had an EPIC security system yelling out "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
They have the same law enforcement power that you and I have, assuming you're not a law enforcement officer. Whether you choose to exercise it or not you have the power to affect a citizen's arrest in most jurisdictions.
The biggest difference between a law enforcement officer making an arrest and a citizen doing the same thing is liability. The law enforcement officer is likely to receive qualified immunity such that if the officer followed his or her training and department policies no personal liability will attach to the officer. You, on the other hand, will face the full brunt of any mistakes you make.
Short of conducting an actual arrest, most law enforcement interactions are based on voluntary cooperation until a threshold is crossed giving the law enforcement officer probable cause to make a formal arrest.
Anyone can have a voluntary interaction with any other person. I could approach you and ask for consent to search your car. You would almost certainly refuse such a request. What gets weird is when most people are approached by a figure of authority, such as a person in a uniform, they tend to comply. A good, from the police department's perspective, law enforcement officer can get almost anyone to consent to a search.
The issue is that until a warrant is issued or an arrest is made there is very little difference between a law enforcement officer, a uniformed security guard or me asking to search you or your car. There are some areas related to preservation of evidence and officer safety that give law enforcement some additional latitude but those situations generally require the officer has legal reason, and thus authority, to seize you meaning you are not free to go. The detention short of an arrest is one of the things law enforcement can do that you, I and the mall security guard should not attempt.
The other big difference is that we, collectively or collectively enough, have decided to give law enforcement officers guns, sticks, handcuffs and a system to make it more and more difficult to refuse the voluntary interaction.
But you, Joe_Dragon, and that mall security guard have a lot more law enforcement authority than you may believe. Liability and safety concerns, though, generally lead to employer policies prohibiting mall security guards from doing anything other than Observe and Report.
known as the K5 Autonomous Data Machine
In 4 versions time they'll have upgraded the version to be friendly, intelligent, run on four legs and be able to chase after people, especially postmen.
What could possibly go wrong?
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
BECAUSE R2-D2.
What are they teaching you kids in school these days, anyway?
I can see it now, ever smarter automated mall security drones that look like R2-D2, constantly being harassed by mall rat teenagers. Ten years pass and we're overrun with Daleks.
read K9 instead of K5 and thought of the Doctor's "pet"? :-)
I am me, I am the anomaly in the machine.
at 5 feet and 300 lbs, it's not so different from normal security guards today who look like they'd get winded from standing up
What gets weird is when most people are approached by a figure of authority, such as a person in a uniform, they tend to comply. A good, from the police department's perspective, law enforcement officer can get almost anyone to consent to a search.
This is because most people don't know that the interaction is voluntary. Your "good policeman" is effective at making the search seem mandatory.
[Their gun, and the general knowledge that they would most likely get away with any assault on you (up to and including murdering you), makes complying with their whims seem even more mandatory. If you recreated your above scenario (you asking for consent to search a car), but this time you are armed and they have no chance of rallying assistance, you'd find people "consent" to your search as well.]
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
It should be more like the ED-209 .
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
Almost 20 years ago I worked on the development of a mobile robot security guard at Denning Mobile Robotics. When we tried to sell to a "large security vendor" we were told that the robot was expensive and if it were destroyed, they would be out capital. If they hire low-wage humans, when they get killed they can hire another one cheaply and insurance (that the human pays for) will take care of the rest. Second, what does the robot cost? If it is patrolling a Walmart, it is likely that the robot is the most valueable thing in the room and will, itself, be the target of theft.
Now, toss a blanket over it and you have completely disabled it.
This seems like a where are they now story.
After Star wars - following the legends.
R2D2 attempted to find more acting jobs but no-one wanted to hire a short robot that doesn't speak english. He is now working as a mall cop in LA.
C3P0 is working as a translator for tourists in Mexico City. There have been some alligations of drug trafficing but so far no evidence has been found.
Han Solo is current serving a 25 year prison sentence at San Quinten for operating as a drug smuggler for the Mexican cartels. His wife Lea waits patentially for his release with their 5 children. She currently is unemployed and on wellfare.
Luke retired to the midwest to become a farmer. He was unwilling to speak to us about his sister and former friends.
Chewy vanished after the movies completed but some die hard fans claim to have seen him in the Northern Canadian Wilderness. Yearly expaditions are conducted in order to locate the reculsive star.
If this is to be unarmed, then you have the wrong format of robot. Having something on the ground to do video surveillance is useless. You need a small, rechargable quadcopter with a camera. A flying robot can avoid the teens, patrol much faster, go from one level to another without escalators, elevators or stairs, and can 'see' much further because of its physical height.
better. It looks more like a Dalek than an R2 unit, but hey, only 2 of the 3 can handle stairs, I'll let my fellow nerds figure which of the 3 can't.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
You've obviously never seen Mall Rats.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
Well there's that but someone placing me under citizens arrest has about as much chance of stopping me as they have of stopping a speeding freight train.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
...a target. As in, paintball, anyone?
Or, for that matter, oops, I stumbled and spilled my coffee/soup/fries with ketchup all *over* that 'droid....
mark
Man, R2-D2 was such a wimp. I want a Mr. Gusty. Later on I can upgrade to the Sentry Bot. In fact, Knightscope needs to change it's name to RobCo. THAT would be awesome.
Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes
Fine. It will be a felony to "tamper with a monitoring device used to protect citizens." Because terrorists/child abductors.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090837/
Hasn't tourism been defeated already?
There's no way I would visit the US.
What are the advantages over strategically placed cameras? Why not use what's already there, or upgrade them, and feed all of that into a system that does the heuristics they're talking about? Seems like a much more acceptable route, not to mention cheaper, than putting in robots that will need to be maintained, and most likely vandalized on a regular basis.
"On a scale from 1 to 10, people are stupid"
...you have 10 seconds to comply
Chuck norris begs to differ...
Charlie Norris and his wife have 999 years of nap-time left on account of Obama's re-election.