10 ms·

RoboCop is real at the Stanford Shopping Center

65 points by Udik 10y ago

atomical 10y ago
Is it smart enough not to scan a picture of a license plate?
jakelarkin 10y ago
"infra-red cameras; microphones ... detection systems that can intercept the pings of mobile phone devices, and license-plate reading software that can process 300 license plates every minute" a surveillance drone for mall-cops. just great /s
click170 10y ago
Gathering license plate info? "Intercepting" cell phone pings? On it's own, meh, but combined with this... >> All the information is streamed to Knightscope’s cloud software and then streamed back either to the customer’s control center, or in some cases to a mobile app held by a human security guard. Am I the only one that feels like this is a bit of a datagrab by this Knightscope company? If there's an option for purchasers to have the data streamed directly to their servers then my concern is lessened, but I'm increasingly turned off by the relentless vacuuming up of data that is becoming so prevalent in new devices these days.
- bolasanibk 10y ago
  Anecdata: At least the one in stanford mall, rolls around in between buildings and is no where near any parking or streets. I doubt it captures many license plates.
  - marincounty 10y ago
    It would most likely be stolen? "Throw it in the back of the truck. I taped the licence plates! The Faraday blanket is covering it." (I imagine a Packsafe, or space blanket would act as a Faraday cage?). The loud siren would be an obstacle. It would take some planning, but maybe doable? Personally, if one was ever kidnapped, I would find it amusing. I guess I'm not suspose to think like this, but devices like this irritate me. An armed security guard seems the better way to go? (And I'm kidding. So, no santimonious sermons. I know we have security concerns.)
keyle 10y ago
You think it's cute now...
mc32 10y ago
At $7/hr to rent it, security guards should start thinking about pivoting career. There was an OECD opinion piece recently where they said on balance automation would not destroy jobs. I don't believe it. It will begin by eating these low skills jobs away and then eat its way upwards.
- ekianjo 10y ago
  A real security guard does more than this robot, though. Especially in case of trouble.
  - jonknee 10y ago
    A real rent-a-cop calls the real cops if there is any trouble (which the robot can certainly do). They are a deterrent, not enforcers.
    - a3n 10y ago
      Security guards can give CPR.
      - ekianjo 10y ago
        That, and they have actually a pretty complete neural network with years of training to adapt to a bunch of circumstances.
        camhenlin 10y ago
        Many of them, not so much
        ekianjo 10y ago
        No, you are thinking about cops maybe?
        10y ago
etherealmachine 10y ago
I work a few buildings down from Knightscope. Walking to lunch my co-workers and I were talking about how they would make a perfect bit on Silicon Valley. They're just bumbling around the parking lot continually, looking both hilarious and vaguely creepy.
corndoge 10y ago
Reminds me of the security drones in psychopass.
lawnchair_larry 10y ago
That's fucked up.
golemotron 10y ago
How long before kids start pranking by dropping blankets on top of them?
- euyyn 10y ago
  :(
dfischer 10y ago
This is really eye-opening on where we are in society compared to sci-fi. We're here boys, and girls, we've finally made it!
Animats 10y ago
What does this thing actually do besides roll around and look impressive? Can it answer questions? Is it sometimes a remote presence device, so people can talk to a human? This seems closer to Japanese marketing robots than an actual security function. There have been "robot guards" before, but they're for empty buildings, checking to see that they're empty and not being robbed. That's useful, since the job is utterly boring and better done by hardware. The Army was trying out a few for guarding their storage buildings about a decade ago.
rmason 10y ago
So tempted to run a Kickstarter and get one of these for Detroit. Detroit is getting the RoboCop statue and it's only fair they get one of these to give the cops a little help.
Steeeve 10y ago
I noticed a few of these there occasionally over the last year, but starting two weeks ago it looks like they are a permanent presence. They roll into their own charging stations. It's an interesting concept. I'm not sure how much I like it. On the one hand, it's a great reference if anything bad ever happens. On the other hand, while a mall is a public place you still don't expect to be tracked to the level of detail that such a device actually does. I know a handful of people that simply won't go there anymore. Personally, the cell phone tracking bugs me. I do not expect that my cell signals are tracked by anyone but the phone company. This kind of technology makes me think about dropping my cell altogether. Sure it's nice to have one, but honestly I can easily get by without having one constantly attached to me. I'm not that important that people need to contact me wherever I am. I also feel negatively about mass facial recognition. I almost understand for large events, but I'm simply not that afraid of terrorism. If we start talking about malls doing it I would just rather not be on camera. If private industry doesn't self-regulate in this regard, people will push the government for privacy and that could kill any budding businesses. If I were an investor I would simply stay away from that kind of technology.
- StanislavPetrov 10y ago
  >but I'm simply not that afraid of terrorism. What it really boils down to is that you have a .00000001% chance of being affected by terrorism, but a 100% chance of being affected by strongarm "responses to terrorism". The sad fact is that most of our population is cowardly and/or apathetic enough to simply accept our ever growing loss of privacy and freedom without objection (or in many cases, notice).
samwestdev 10y ago
Looks like those police bots in psycho pass
Shivetya 10y ago
Needs to look like a Dalek or other recognizable robot and people will blithely ignore the invasions of privacy and whatnot.
- pbhjpbhj 10y ago
  Johnny-5 or WallE would seem better.
- CM30 10y ago
  I think designing it after a known cyborg killing machine like a Dalek would make the feeling worse rather than better. Especially in the UK. That said, a design based on a famous robot or cyborg would be a pretty interesting way to make one of these things fit in at a sci-fi convention or something. It'd at least help theme the event slightly more.
CM30 10y ago
I'm probably missing something obvious here, but is there a reason the article mentions this is regards to the Sandy Hook shooting incident? Because there aren't exactly any features here that would have helped much in preventing it, unless you think detecting the shooter's car by the numberplate is somehow going to have made a major difference. If they really wanted to stop things like school shootings and terrorist attacks, then the robot needs to actually be armed in some way, since no one is going to take this thing as some sort of deterrent. Really, it seems mostly useful as a sort of tourist attraction rather than anything more, since it's apparently really popular with the people visiting the mall.

65 points by Udik 10y ago

Is it smart enough not to scan a picture of a license plate?

"infra-red cameras; microphones ... detection systems that can intercept the pings of mobile phone devices, and license-plate reading software that can process 300 license plates every minute" a surveillance drone for mall-cops. just great /s

click170 10y ago

Gathering license plate info? "Intercepting" cell phone pings? On it's own, meh, but combined with this... >> All the information is streamed to Knightscope’s cloud software and then streamed back either to the customer’s control center, or in some cases to a mobile app held by a human security guard. Am I the only one that feels like this is a bit of a datagrab by this Knightscope company? If there's an option for purchasers to have the data streamed directly to their servers then my concern is lessened, but I'm increasingly turned off by the relentless vacuuming up of data that is becoming so prevalent in new devices these days.

bolasanibk 10y ago
Anecdata: At least the one in stanford mall, rolls around in between buildings and is no where near any parking or streets. I doubt it captures many license plates.
- marincounty 10y ago
  It would most likely be stolen? "Throw it in the back of the truck. I taped the licence plates! The Faraday blanket is covering it." (I imagine a Packsafe, or space blanket would act as a Faraday cage?). The loud siren would be an obstacle. It would take some planning, but maybe doable? Personally, if one was ever kidnapped, I would find it amusing. I guess I'm not suspose to think like this, but devices like this irritate me. An armed security guard seems the better way to go? (And I'm kidding. So, no santimonious sermons. I know we have security concerns.)

keyle 10y ago

You think it's cute now...

mc32 10y ago

At $7/hr to rent it, security guards should start thinking about pivoting career. There was an OECD opinion piece recently where they said on balance automation would not destroy jobs. I don't believe it. It will begin by eating these low skills jobs away and then eat its way upwards.

ekianjo 10y ago
A real security guard does more than this robot, though. Especially in case of trouble.
- jonknee 10y ago
  A real rent-a-cop calls the real cops if there is any trouble (which the robot can certainly do). They are a deterrent, not enforcers.
  - a3n 10y ago
    Security guards can give CPR.
    - ekianjo 10y ago
      That, and they have actually a pretty complete neural network with years of training to adapt to a bunch of circumstances.
      - camhenlin 10y ago
        Many of them, not so much
        ekianjo 10y ago
        No, you are thinking about cops maybe?
        10y ago

etherealmachine 10y ago

I work a few buildings down from Knightscope. Walking to lunch my co-workers and I were talking about how they would make a perfect bit on Silicon Valley. They're just bumbling around the parking lot continually, looking both hilarious and vaguely creepy.

corndoge 10y ago

Reminds me of the security drones in psychopass.

lawnchair_larry 10y ago

That's fucked up.

golemotron 10y ago

How long before kids start pranking by dropping blankets on top of them?

euyyn 10y ago
:(

dfischer 10y ago

This is really eye-opening on where we are in society compared to sci-fi. We're here boys, and girls, we've finally made it!

Animats 10y ago

What does this thing actually do besides roll around and look impressive? Can it answer questions? Is it sometimes a remote presence device, so people can talk to a human? This seems closer to Japanese marketing robots than an actual security function. There have been "robot guards" before, but they're for empty buildings, checking to see that they're empty and not being robbed. That's useful, since the job is utterly boring and better done by hardware. The Army was trying out a few for guarding their storage buildings about a decade ago.

rmason 10y ago

So tempted to run a Kickstarter and get one of these for Detroit. Detroit is getting the RoboCop statue and it's only fair they get one of these to give the cops a little help.

Steeeve 10y ago

I noticed a few of these there occasionally over the last year, but starting two weeks ago it looks like they are a permanent presence. They roll into their own charging stations. It's an interesting concept. I'm not sure how much I like it. On the one hand, it's a great reference if anything bad ever happens. On the other hand, while a mall is a public place you still don't expect to be tracked to the level of detail that such a device actually does. I know a handful of people that simply won't go there anymore. Personally, the cell phone tracking bugs me. I do not expect that my cell signals are tracked by anyone but the phone company. This kind of technology makes me think about dropping my cell altogether. Sure it's nice to have one, but honestly I can easily get by without having one constantly attached to me. I'm not that important that people need to contact me wherever I am. I also feel negatively about mass facial recognition. I almost understand for large events, but I'm simply not that afraid of terrorism. If we start talking about malls doing it I would just rather not be on camera. If private industry doesn't self-regulate in this regard, people will push the government for privacy and that could kill any budding businesses. If I were an investor I would simply stay away from that kind of technology.

StanislavPetrov 10y ago
>but I'm simply not that afraid of terrorism. What it really boils down to is that you have a .00000001% chance of being affected by terrorism, but a 100% chance of being affected by strongarm "responses to terrorism". The sad fact is that most of our population is cowardly and/or apathetic enough to simply accept our ever growing loss of privacy and freedom without objection (or in many cases, notice).

samwestdev 10y ago

Looks like those police bots in psycho pass

Shivetya 10y ago

Needs to look like a Dalek or other recognizable robot and people will blithely ignore the invasions of privacy and whatnot.

pbhjpbhj 10y ago
Johnny-5 or WallE would seem better.
CM30 10y ago
I think designing it after a known cyborg killing machine like a Dalek would make the feeling worse rather than better. Especially in the UK. That said, a design based on a famous robot or cyborg would be a pretty interesting way to make one of these things fit in at a sci-fi convention or something. It'd at least help theme the event slightly more.

CM30 10y ago

I'm probably missing something obvious here, but is there a reason the article mentions this is regards to the Sandy Hook shooting incident? Because there aren't exactly any features here that would have helped much in preventing it, unless you think detecting the shooter's car by the numberplate is somehow going to have made a major difference. If they really wanted to stop things like school shootings and terrorist attacks, then the robot needs to actually be armed in some way, since no one is going to take this thing as some sort of deterrent. Really, it seems mostly useful as a sort of tourist attraction rather than anything more, since it's apparently really popular with the people visiting the mall.