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It's so sad to see that PhD students spend energy thinking about how to develop such policing systems. I don't understand it. Aren't these guys given any ethics

by d--b 8y ago

It's so sad to see that PhD students spend energy thinking about how to develop such policing systems. I don't understand it. Aren't these guys given any ethics class ? They should use their systems in their labs, tracking where everyone goes all the time, and store that data on one computer system available to the dean of the university (and his friends, the IT guys, and whoever knows about hacking)...

jsty 8y ago
Law enforcement might not be the only use for this (although it's the one that springs most readily to mind). E.g. in London there's the congestion charge, which would probably be much more effective in reducing congestion + emissions (or at least loading more costs onto those causing the issue) by charging per mile instead of a flat per day fee. A system like this would make that possible without requiring a tracker to be fitted to every car, although a growing number of people have these anyway for a reduced insurance premium.
chatmasta 8y ago
You might consider that not everybody shares the same ethical frameworks as you. What you consider morally wrong, others might not. Similarly there are often multiple use cases for technology, some more ethically ambiguous than others.
jstarfish 8y ago
> It's so sad to see that PhD students spend energy thinking about how to develop such policing systems. I don't understand it. Aren't these guys given any ethics class ? Ethics classes are usually elective. Most students elect to study more interesting topics.
rurban 8y ago
Such a system is already applied worldwide (by some people I know personally) for toll collection (and who knows what else). But it's much simplier. The optical carplate matcher is in every camera and no video is being sent for verification. With the timestamp and carplate you implement speed tracking. Without the video you ensure it's not used by normal police for speeding tickets.

by d--b 8y ago

jsty 8y ago

Law enforcement might not be the only use for this (although it's the one that springs most readily to mind). E.g. in London there's the congestion charge, which would probably be much more effective in reducing congestion + emissions (or at least loading more costs onto those causing the issue) by charging per mile instead of a flat per day fee. A system like this would make that possible without requiring a tracker to be fitted to every car, although a growing number of people have these anyway for a reduced insurance premium.

chatmasta 8y ago

You might consider that not everybody shares the same ethical frameworks as you. What you consider morally wrong, others might not. Similarly there are often multiple use cases for technology, some more ethically ambiguous than others.

jstarfish 8y ago

> It's so sad to see that PhD students spend energy thinking about how to develop such policing systems. I don't understand it. Aren't these guys given any ethics class ? Ethics classes are usually elective. Most students elect to study more interesting topics.

rurban 8y ago

Such a system is already applied worldwide (by some people I know personally) for toll collection (and who knows what else). But it's much simplier. The optical carplate matcher is in every camera and no video is being sent for verification. With the timestamp and carplate you implement speed tracking. Without the video you ensure it's not used by normal police for speeding tickets.