Internet Oddities and Eccentricity at Bunch of Nerds » 1984

The US Army wants packs of robots which can hunt unruly humans

Nerds — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:24:29 +0000

Revealed in a recent Army request to the Department of Defense, a search appears to be underway for a good team to create a next-generation sensor package to enable a robot, or teams of robots, to detect unruly humans. Or as the Army puts it:

Develop a software and sensor package to enable a team of robots to search for and detect human presence in an indoor environment.

As robotics engineers get more and more worried that their creations will become tomorrow’s oppressive machines, objections are popping up from robo-ethicists and robotics engineers around the net.

I for one am interested to see how much closer our lives will be like living in an episode of Half-Life 2.

George Orwell’s house surrounded by CCTV cameras

Nerds — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 15:38:27 +0000

A depressing reminder of Orwell’s classic novel, ’1984′, a recent study into CCTV camera usage for surveillance in Britain has came out with some startling results. Britain has over 4.2 million CCTV cameras on it’s streets, one for every 14 people in the country, and accounting for over 20% of CCTV cameras globally. It’s theorized that a normal Britain is caught on a CCTV camera hundreds of times a day in and around London. The most ironic piece of news associated with the report is the London neighborhood where Orwell lived until his death in 1950. Within 200 yards of Orwell’s former residence is over 32 CCTV cameras, including the gardens Orwell viewed from his windows, which are covered by 24-hour surveillance from 2 CCTV cameras.

The flat’s rear windows are constantly viewed from two more security cameras outside a conference centre in Canonbury Place.

In a lane, just off the square, close to Orwell’s favourite pub, the Compton Arms, a camera at the rear of a car dealership records every person entering or leaving the pub.

Within a 200-yard radius of the flat, there are another 28 CCTV cameras, together with hundreds of private, remote-controlled security cameras used to scrutinise visitors to homes, shops and offices.

There are 16,000,000 creepy eyes in NYC..

Nerds — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 16:25:02 +0000

…and it appears that all of them are supposed to be watching you. The New York Transportation Authority’s security campaign seeks to turn normal citizens into spies by encouraging travelers to keep their eyes and ears open, spotting terrorist activity on buses and subways around the city. There must be a less-creepy way of encouraging self-awareness among citizens without hints of neighbors spying on neighbors?

See the posters after the jump..

Read/See more: Eyes of New York campaign | MTA security posters