Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Real-Life RoboCop Guards Shopping Centers In California (metro.co.uk)

Posted by BeauHD on from the coming-to-a-theater-near-you dept.

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.

10 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Does it have the special cop capabilities by NotInHere · · Score: 3, Funny

    can it detect whether somebody is black or white, in order to find out whether to shoot them at sight?

    1. Re:Does it have the special cop capabilities by davester666 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      These things are just begging to be hacked to say something like "I am authorized to use lethal force if you do not put down that weapon in 10 seconds. Nine....." to anybody coming in range, say every couple of days. Just often enough to totally freak someone out, but rare enough that regular, human security thinks they are crazy.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  2. at last! by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2

    my snake disguise will 100% effective!

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  3. Makes sense by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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/
    1. Re:Makes sense by mjwx · · Score: 2

      Most of what mall cops do is make people feel watched. It's the kind of work that's ripe for automation.

      In the US.

      In Australia and the UK we dont really have "mall cops" as we tend not to let crazy people run around with weapons too often. We do have people employed by the shopping centre to assist people like the disabled, the elderly, parents with children when appropriate. Generally policing is done by the police and shopping centres are full of cameras (so that they can be charged and then released by the police and courts).

      The only time I've seen actual mall cops is in the Philippines where you have to enter via a metal detector and all the guards are packing (yes, there are lots of guns in the Phils).

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  4. Real-life? by Livius · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  5. Re:I see it now! by godel_56 · · Score: 2, Funny

    The robots will get tired of poverty wages in about 6 months! Expect picketing, riots, and #RobotLivesMatter soon!

    Nah, they'll just replace it with a cheaper imported model on a H-1B visa.

  6. Re:A minute too late by BlueStrat · · Score: 2

    When seconds count the cops are minutes away. Good thing it was a gun free zone.......

    Doesn't matter.

    Guns make badfeel, double-plus ungood. Guns badthink.

    Strat

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  7. Re:Inspired by Sandy Hook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    NYC is a gun free city, and has the lowest crime of any medium to large metro area out there. Australia's gun killings are a fraction of what they were after the assault weapons were cleaned up. Venezuela's violence went down, even with hits horrific economic conditions because of the all-out gun ban. Even with their economy in shambles, without guns, violence is a lot harder to do.

    Gun free zones do work. The proof is in the pudding. Would be nice for the US to not be the #1 murder capital of the world next to countries with failed states. Maybe if the entire US was a gun free zone, it would be as safe as Europe. (Oh, don't give me the ISIS stuff... lightning takes far more lives than the chance of even breathing air with a terrorist in action.)

  8. Re:A minute too late by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yes, we need more tired stressed-out teachers locked and loaded, carrying concealed or - better yet - using hip holsters. There is ~surely~ no way more deaths and injuries would have resulted, neither from misfires nor theft of guns by kids. The only calculus is guns = "fantasy solution".