Slashdot Mirror
Real-Life RoboCop Guards Shopping Centers In California (metro.co.uk)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Metro: While machines from the likes of RoboCop and Chappie might just be the reserve of films for now, this new type of robot is already fighting crime. This particular example can be found guarding a shopping center in California but there are other machines in operation all over the state. Equipped with self-navigation, infra-red cameras and microphones that can detect breaking glass, the robots, designed by Knightscope, are intended to support security services. Stacy Dean Stephens, who came up with the idea, told The Guardian the problem that needed solving was one of intelligence. "And the only way to gain accurate intelligence is through eyes and ears," he said. "So, we started looking at different ways to deploy eyes and ears into situations like that." The robot costs about $7 an hour to rent and was inspired by the Sandy Hook school shooting after which it was claimed 12 lives could have been saved if officers arrived a minute earlier.
can it detect whether somebody is black or white, in order to find out whether to shoot them at sight?
The robots will get tired of poverty wages in about 6 months! Expect picketing, riots, and #RobotLivesMatter soon!
terminate!
my snake disguise will 100% effective!
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
The robot costs about $7 an hour to rent and was inspired by the Sandy Hook school shooting after which it was claimed 12 lives could have been saved if officers arrived a minute earlier.
So does this mean that the police weren't notified as soon as the shooter was identified as a threat? That's the only way this claim has any bearing on additional monitoring whatsoever.
This isn't a real-life RoboCop. RoboCop was based on a human and not 100% machine.
This is more like ED-209 Robocop was a Cyborg meaning a human brain supported by mechanics and electronics...
The Obnoxious Capitalization In All Of The Article's Headlines?
If you ever see one of these, run. There will likely be a blue police box nearby. You can take refuge inside. Don't worry, it's larger on the inside than on the outside.
Imagine all the people...
Frankly Enforcement Droid model 209 would be immensely funny if deployed in gun-phobic Democratic People's Republic of California.
Most of what mall cops do is make people feel watched. It's the kind of work that's ripe for automation.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
arrives in Shopping Centers In California.
From the article: "Stacy said there have been two occasions when the company found lipstick marks on the robotâ(TM)s anti-graffiti surface."
Some women will have sex with anything that moves...
Or definitely some type of pork product!
Sounds like a great way to get your mall executives shot up during a business meeting due to a malfunction...
sandy hook was a real event.
Doesn't matter; you have ten seconds to comply.
Actually "twenty seconds to comply". Your geek card is hereby revoked...
This is a cool technology and it's serving a practical need.
But as soon as someone says "Real-Life RoboCop" and then backpedals to a kind of surveillance drone, none of the rest of it has any credibility.
Sounds more like the Killbots from Chopping Mall than Robocop.
"Remember, there never were pineapple-almond cookies here."
before one of these things are stolen?
"You have 20 seconds to comply."
Have gnu, will travel.
You have to reboot them every couple hours or they get stuck in the cinnabon or start macing children indiscriminately.
That looks like a promising way to deter car prowls in parking garages, and alert security if there is one in real time. Maybe similar in buildings with lots of windows, have a few of these robots patrol the corridors listening for the sound of glass breaking or doors opening where they shouldn't be.
I'm not sure I understand the connection to Sandy Hook, but I suppose inspiration isn't necessarily a deterministic process, so who's to say that's wrong.
http://vignette2.wikia.nocooki... and https://metrouk2.files.wordpre...
For one, these are a relatively inexpensive way to guard things like abandoned malls, warehouses, and other acrage where a security guard is too expensive. If the robot sees something, it notified a monitoring center, which notifies the sheriff. Of course, I'm hoping for laws that treat robotic police like real police so if someone shoots one, they go to prison for attempted capital murder, just like someone who attacks a police dog that is gnawing them goes to prison for 20-life in the state I live in.
n/t
n/t
I have seen a couple of ED209 mentions, but so far no one has mentioned that RoboCop is not actually a robot, but a cyborg. You know "Resistance is futile" while spraying mace on 90 year old woman so it can protect her walker from being abused.
That's the best you could yo for a comparison?
Doesn't anyone else thing that this thing looks like what you'd get if you were to mate a Dalek with an iPod?
Imagine all the people...
The robot costs about $7 an hour to rent and was inspired by the Sandy Hook school shooting after which it was claimed 12 lives could have been saved if officers arrived a minute earlier.
What would have saved them all was to have an armed presence on site. This fiction that we can create a "gun free zone" around anything is what got a lot of people killed. Insane people with guns are attracted to these "gun free zones" because they know they will not be met with armed resistance when they arrive. This gives them plenty of time to kill before an armed resistance does arrive. Given the tendency for these people to commit suicide when they do meet resistance shows they had no intention of coming out alive.
Putting cameras on site to alert the people with guns to come will no doubt reduce the effectiveness of these suicidal murderers but we should be aiming for the means to reduce the threat they pose as much as possible. Cameras can certainly assist in this but what we need are people with the ability to act to be there before the threat arrives. That means arming as many good people as possible so that any armed bad people that arrive will be seriously outnumbered.
It's taken time and many people killed but lawmakers are seeing how "gun free zones" have failed. Sandy Hook is just one example of many. We are seeing the slow repeal of laws that restrict the law abiding from arming themselves against suicidal murderers. The largest hurdle will no doubt be the federal laws that create "gun free zones" because the people that live in DC don't live under the laws they create. Their children go to schools where armed guards protect their children, no gun free zones for them.
This "robocop" is cute but I expect it to be near worthless. If a person is assaulted then they are likely to be heard by other people regardless, people that tend to have cell phones. Gunshots will certainly be heard for quite some distance and alert people to notify police. I don't want the robot to be armed since I can find many problems that can pose. What I want is a public free to defend itself. Cellphones, stationary cameras, and other technologies are certainly helpful in alerting police to come. A robot like this in an already built up area seems pointless to me, put that money towards a security infrastructure instead.
Where I do see something like this robot helpful is in things like festivals and such where an empty field is turned into a crowd of tents and people for a short period. The robots can provide video coverage for a security team and/or police. However in such places the robot might have to deal with uneven ground, steps, etc. requiring more than just the shopping cart wheels like in the pictures. These "robocops" will then have to be much larger, more powerful, and therefore more expensive to remain mobile. Alternatively and perhaps just as effective is to have stationary "robots" with eyes and ears on the crowd for security.
I see that people are recognizing the problem but it seems to me that political correctness is preventing them from forming effective solutions.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Looks like Eve from Wall-E got jiggy(watt) with a Dalek.
A couple of balloons filled with paint and decent aim to hit the cameras is all it's going to take to neutralize this trashcan.
Am I the only one to see a dalek rather than Robocop ?
Where are the warnings on it you are being recorded? When was the last time you hugged a mall cop? This thing should have warnings on it you are being recorded up close and personal.
This wonderful bit of technology is one more step towards getting the next generation comfortable to being watched all the time.
And to tie it to Sandy Hook? Seriously? Just like the TSA, this is an improper response to a security problem in that context.
Couple this with the other news about the government not needing warrants for 'public' camera streams and we have a recipe for some real control of the populace.
We are sliding down that slippery slope at a good pace now. Ugh.
Self Defense - A Human Right www.a-human-right.com
Do you mean with a paintball gun? That sounds AWESOME!
Perhaps this is another example on how the artificial minimum wage is putting people out of work. If this robot costs $7/hr and the minimum wage is $15/hr then it would make sense for any property owner to have a handful of these robots and a single security guard in a room watching video screens.
What it also does is further separate people from people. People value human interaction, even if it's just having someone in a uniform smile and nod as they walk past. Companies that put a bunch of robots instead of people to provide security may find themselves driving off customers and not know why. The people that avoid shopping in places guarded by roaming robots might not even realize why they stopped shopping there.
I also dispute the security value they provide since they lack any ability to act on the information they gather. We've seen this already with stationary security cameras. People tried to save on labor costs and claim to provide the same level of security by having more cameras but the cameras never have the resolution of the human eye and the lack of the ability to act immediately provides an escape for thugs. There are numerous cases of security cameras capturing criminal behavior with the people knowing full well they are on camera. They don't care because they know the camera cannot act, the person behind the camera (assuming there is one) will not be able to get on scene in time to catch them as they flee.
I think they'd be better off finding some responsible young adults, give them a bit of training on how to notice bad behavior, write a report, etc. and give them the $7/hr instead of the robot. Judging by the unemployment rates of young adults it should not be difficult to find people willing to do this work. But in many places in the USA this is illegal. So instead we have inferior security robots, unemployed people, shopping centers with robots creeping people out, etc.
As a bonus to having people walking around to keep an eye on things they can actually do stuff that the robot cannot. They can pick up trash, greet people, give directions, etc. In short this robot is the solution to a problem we've created ourselves.
An artificial solution to an artificial problem.
This robot was supposedly inspired by a mass shooting but yet this robot is not armed, it can only alert the armed people to come to the aid of others. This might shorten the time that it takes to alert people but without a person doing the alerting there is no person there. I don't know what the going rate is for armed security but I'd think that is much more valuable than any $7/hr robot. The way things are going it may be possible to get some responsible armed guards for just $7/hr if it wasn't illegal to do so.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
will these things stop police from crossing the line?
happy trials
This robot was supposedly inspired by a mass shooting but yet this robot is not armed, it can only alert the armed people to come to the aid of others
And guess what Adam Lanza's first bullet would have been directed at?
I guess they've never seen Chopping Mall? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLMyInUPQ2g