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You could do serious damage with this. You could follow CEO's,government officials etc and detail everything they do and who they meet with. Nothing stopping th

You could do serious damage with this. You could follow CEO's,government officials etc and detail everything they do and who they meet with. Nothing stopping that company from using the images they have stored to compile information on whoever they want in the area. Great technology thats super easy to abuse to devastating effect in a myriad of ways. No one really cares about that though .

BEEdwards 10y ago
Whats really scary, is that though right now this is fairly high tech and needs specialized hardware and software, that requirement won't always be there. How many months until this is in the hands of any interested party with a bit of technical knowledge an the ability to read some documentation?
- pdkl95 10y ago
  The rapid acceleration of technology is causing problems in many areas. Freedom means trusting each other, and I fear we (as a species) cannot adapt our social structures fast enough. We are falling behind because technology is being introduced to society faster than society can adapt. One of my older posts addresses the larger picture of this problem: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8916033 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8916033
- dogma1138 10y ago
  Oddly enough it doesn't. This was developed by DARPA with over the shelf technology the camera uses an array of several 1000s cellphone cameras and and the processing is done on commercial GPUs. The sensory data looks like ARGUS, before this around 2008 the Israelis had a similar system called Sharp Anchor which had even greater resolution at 4cm per pixel in full color which was reportedly deployed over Gaza.
hackuser 10y ago
You could do a lot of that by many other means: Simple cell phone tracking will tell you everywhere people go and everyone they meet. Plenty of apps track geolocation; data on hosted servers and the wire have plenty more data, etc.
- dmix 10y ago
  Nothing tells a story like high quality video though. Just imagine a story told via cell phone tracking of a CEO and known prostitutes phone traveling to a hotel together vs satellite/drone video feed (at a high quality the US government uses, not the grainy stuff they and this guy are releasing) .
- zouhair 10y ago
  I could choose not to have a phone I couldn't choose to not be on the street.
  - tP5n 10y ago
    I once met someone who spent a few weeks in custody for choosing not to have his phone with him. It's not always a choice ;)
    - e12e 10y ago
      What? Was he charged directly because he wasn't reachable on his cell phone?
- hughperkins 10y ago
  its probably fair to say that both can be used: cellphones for indoor and outdoor tracking, airborne video for outdoor tracking.
chillingeffect 10y ago
Watch all the cops from the sky. Sell a stream of GPS coordinates to bad guys. Figure out where all the cops live. Figure out daily routes and make your rival late for a meeting. Learn armored car routes. Figure out which kids walked home from school alone with no parents home. Accumulate lists of people who take suspicious routes so if they're ever questioned as witnesses cops have leverage. Hell, this very video alone indicates homes where a group of vigilantes, witch-hunters or competing drug dealers could go tonight to get revenge.
rkda 10y ago
"HawkEye II is intended to see expansive areas wtih resolutions that allow users to detect movements of people and vehicles. It does not provide the ability to detect gender, ethnicity, age, hair color, nor can it be used for facial recognition. This is an inherent limit to Wide Area Motion Imagery. If cameras get better - and they will - the same rseolution limits will remain in place, the change will be in the size of the coverage area." At least the company behind this seems to be ethical. http://www.pss-1.com/#!hawkeye-ii-resolution/ccm3 http://www.pss-1.com/#!hawkeye-ii-resolution/ccm3
- BEEdwards 10y ago
  Conversely those better cameras with a narrower coverage area (ie the same one they have now) those better cameras might have the resolution required for detection of "gender, ethnicity, age, hair color ... facial recognition."
- alanwatts 10y ago
  If someone has access to cameras on the ground it doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to integrate this with a facial recognition system
  - e12e 10y ago
    This is already being done, and has been done (in secret) for a while: "Secret Cameras Record Baltimore’s Every Move from Above (bloomberg.com)": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12347595 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12347595 "Additionally, they discovered that when the suspect walked away from the shopping center, he’d passed in front of a ground-based security camera. Accessing that footage and reviewing Cooper’s mug shots on file, they found a possible match."

BEEdwards 10y ago

Whats really scary, is that though right now this is fairly high tech and needs specialized hardware and software, that requirement won't always be there. How many months until this is in the hands of any interested party with a bit of technical knowledge an the ability to read some documentation?

pdkl95 10y ago
The rapid acceleration of technology is causing problems in many areas. Freedom means trusting each other, and I fear we (as a species) cannot adapt our social structures fast enough. We are falling behind because technology is being introduced to society faster than society can adapt. One of my older posts addresses the larger picture of this problem: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8916033 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8916033
dogma1138 10y ago
Oddly enough it doesn't. This was developed by DARPA with over the shelf technology the camera uses an array of several 1000s cellphone cameras and and the processing is done on commercial GPUs. The sensory data looks like ARGUS, before this around 2008 the Israelis had a similar system called Sharp Anchor which had even greater resolution at 4cm per pixel in full color which was reportedly deployed over Gaza.

hackuser 10y ago

You could do a lot of that by many other means: Simple cell phone tracking will tell you everywhere people go and everyone they meet. Plenty of apps track geolocation; data on hosted servers and the wire have plenty more data, etc.

dmix 10y ago
Nothing tells a story like high quality video though. Just imagine a story told via cell phone tracking of a CEO and known prostitutes phone traveling to a hotel together vs satellite/drone video feed (at a high quality the US government uses, not the grainy stuff they and this guy are releasing) .
zouhair 10y ago
I could choose not to have a phone I couldn't choose to not be on the street.
- tP5n 10y ago
  I once met someone who spent a few weeks in custody for choosing not to have his phone with him. It's not always a choice ;)
  - e12e 10y ago
    What? Was he charged directly because he wasn't reachable on his cell phone?
hughperkins 10y ago
its probably fair to say that both can be used: cellphones for indoor and outdoor tracking, airborne video for outdoor tracking.

chillingeffect 10y ago

Watch all the cops from the sky. Sell a stream of GPS coordinates to bad guys. Figure out where all the cops live. Figure out daily routes and make your rival late for a meeting. Learn armored car routes. Figure out which kids walked home from school alone with no parents home. Accumulate lists of people who take suspicious routes so if they're ever questioned as witnesses cops have leverage. Hell, this very video alone indicates homes where a group of vigilantes, witch-hunters or competing drug dealers could go tonight to get revenge.

rkda 10y ago

"HawkEye II is intended to see expansive areas wtih resolutions that allow users to detect movements of people and vehicles. It does not provide the ability to detect gender, ethnicity, age, hair color, nor can it be used for facial recognition. This is an inherent limit to Wide Area Motion Imagery. If cameras get better - and they will - the same rseolution limits will remain in place, the change will be in the size of the coverage area." At least the company behind this seems to be ethical. http://www.pss-1.com/#!hawkeye-ii-resolution/ccm3 http://www.pss-1.com/#!hawkeye-ii-resolution/ccm3

BEEdwards 10y ago
Conversely those better cameras with a narrower coverage area (ie the same one they have now) those better cameras might have the resolution required for detection of "gender, ethnicity, age, hair color ... facial recognition."
alanwatts 10y ago
If someone has access to cameras on the ground it doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to integrate this with a facial recognition system
- e12e 10y ago
  This is already being done, and has been done (in secret) for a while: "Secret Cameras Record Baltimore’s Every Move from Above (bloomberg.com)": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12347595 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12347595 "Additionally, they discovered that when the suspect walked away from the shopping center, he’d passed in front of a ground-based security camera. Accessing that footage and reviewing Cooper’s mug shots on file, they found a possible match."