5 ms·

Products I'm glad do NOT exist: 4. ADT 2.0: Digital neighborhood watch. Ring is gross enough, thank you very much.

by hprotagonist 7y ago

tinus_hn 7y ago
It already exists in apps for nosey neighbors like Nextdoor
- scarface74 7y ago
  Aka: “I see a suspicious looking Black Guy in our suburban neighborhood. It looks like he is breaking into a house by using a remote to open a garage door and driving in.”
  - notJim 7y ago
    Also: "why haven't the cops arrested all these homeless people yet?"
  - jedberg 7y ago
    Yeah, my Next-door has a lot of that. They aren't that obvious though. I like to call them out. "I saw a suspicious man walking down the street!" "What made him suspicious?" "He just doesn't look like he belongs here." "Why?" "He's black" "Being black isn't suspicious" I then I get an email from Next-door about my comments being reported!
- Normal_gaussian 7y ago
  I signed up to our Nextdoor (uk). There seems to be four things on here: - an avon lady over agressively spamming her stuff (blocked) - people asking for small job recommendations (who should I get to fix my garden gate, babysitter, tv ariel fitting) - some notices about local events (when / where fireworks, Remembrence, carolling) - group commiseration that one time some group was speeding all over town at midnight running red lights and keeping us up with their skidding and revving. Honestly pretty good. I see it maybe once a week.
  - siffland 7y ago
    I went to sign up for Nextdoor and it wanted full access to all my contacts in my phone. I looked on their site and that is so they can invite friends from my contacts. I didn't sign up, maybe i will later, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. https://help.nextdoor.com/s/article/About-android-app-permissions?language=en_US https://help.nextdoor.com/s/article/About-android-app-permis...
    - benglish11 7y ago
      I have the iphone app and it didn't require this permission or maybe it asked and I denied it. Is that not possible in android?
    - Normal_gaussian 7y ago
      I just checked my app, it had no permissions. I wouldn't allow it to do so, so I assume it asked, I said no, and we moved on.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
- chasd00 7y ago
  the one useful thing Nextdoor is good for is lost/found pets. Other than that, i've never liked it. I have a Ring and some of it is just downright funny. > "suspicious person on my porch, be on the look out!" >> "um, that's the mailman."
- _jal 7y ago
  The only value Nextdoor provided me was making me aware that the asshole down the block is also a racist. Deleted that cesspool after confirming it was just another fear-inducer service for people who get off on that.
dunkelan 7y ago
I think the key term is "consumer-centric". Ring and other home cams are necessary peace of mind for a lot of people.
- runjake 7y ago
  Non-DIY plus subscriptions plus corporations rarely leads to "consumer-centric". More often it's almost solely profit-driven.
  - criddell 7y ago
    What's wrong with subscriptions? If you are getting an ongoing service (like Spotify, or HBO, or magazine delivery, etc...) it seems that an ongoing fee makes sense.
    - TeMPOraL 7y ago
      Products turning into services, that's what wrong. You stop paying, the devices stop working. Or, they decide they're bored with providing the service, and pivot or get acquihired (or just decide to prod you into upgrading), the devices stop working. Plus, it seems that the new breed of service companies isn't satisfied with just providing a service in exchange of money. They also use the opportunity to exfiltrate as much data about you as they can get.
      - mynegation 7y ago
        That is fine. I am happily paying for Spotify as they provide me with tremendous value day over day. I spend much less on music than in the days of buying CDs and Have access to a huge catalogue, instantly.
      - criddell 7y ago
        You don't subscribe to cable tv or netflix?
        7y ago
Wistar 7y ago
My ex-neighborhood (Magnolia in Seattle) has had Flock Safety install 6 "AI" camera systems, two at each of the three entry/exit point of the neighborhood. Each installation has a camera overseeing entering traffic and one overseeing exiting traffic. The cameras have license-plate recognition and object detection for car color/make/model, pedestrians, bicyclists and even animals. Flock Safety charges $2,000 per year per camera. Magnolia is one of about 10 Seattle-area neighborhoods with Flock Safety cameras installed. The Magnolia residents themselves pay for the cameras and service. They all can log in to a web service and see the footage and ALPR lists, timestamps, etc. Friends I have who live there are thrilled with the system although the Seattle police seem to have little interest in the system telling the residents that they are only interested in seeing footage that shows suspicious activities or is directly related to a crime. https://www.flocksafety.com/ https://www.flocksafety.com/ Porch pirates are so bad in my new neighborhood that I admit to wanting one of these on my dead-end culdesac and have investigated what it would take to build such a system myself.
- knicholes 7y ago
  1. Set up some raspberry pis with cameras that run a webserver that when hit, it returns the current image. 2. Create a backend that queries each camera for their current image. 3. Run the images through some object recognition neural network (fastai has some great object recognition tutorials). 4. Make your backend stitch together the images from each camera to make a video of what was being recognized when objects of interest were detected (each camera will create its own video) 5. Create a nice little UI/App for everyone to view the movies with some filtering in place (time of day, object(s) of interest). I want to create something like this as well. All of the pieces seem to be pretty straightforward to me except for figuring out power and network connectivity. I guess each neighbor would have to configure the device to use their SSID... and hope someone doesn't steal the raspberry pi and get the SSID credentials from memory... Maybe just make the neighbors use a separate network?
  - Wistar 7y ago
    Wow. Thank you. There is an OpenALPR project for license plate recognition. https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr Also at: http://doc.openalpr.com/opensource.html http://doc.openalpr.com/opensource.html And a ready-to-go version you can buy/subscribe based on their stuff: http://www.openalpr.com/ http://www.openalpr.com/

Products I'm glad do NOT exist: 4. ADT 2.0: Digital neighborhood watch. Ring is gross enough, thank you very much.

tinus_hn 7y ago

It already exists in apps for nosey neighbors like Nextdoor

scarface74 7y ago
Aka: “I see a suspicious looking Black Guy in our suburban neighborhood. It looks like he is breaking into a house by using a remote to open a garage door and driving in.”
- notJim 7y ago
  Also: "why haven't the cops arrested all these homeless people yet?"
- jedberg 7y ago
  Yeah, my Next-door has a lot of that. They aren't that obvious though. I like to call them out. "I saw a suspicious man walking down the street!" "What made him suspicious?" "He just doesn't look like he belongs here." "Why?" "He's black" "Being black isn't suspicious" I then I get an email from Next-door about my comments being reported!
Normal_gaussian 7y ago
I signed up to our Nextdoor (uk). There seems to be four things on here: - an avon lady over agressively spamming her stuff (blocked) - people asking for small job recommendations (who should I get to fix my garden gate, babysitter, tv ariel fitting) - some notices about local events (when / where fireworks, Remembrence, carolling) - group commiseration that one time some group was speeding all over town at midnight running red lights and keeping us up with their skidding and revving. Honestly pretty good. I see it maybe once a week.
- siffland 7y ago
  I went to sign up for Nextdoor and it wanted full access to all my contacts in my phone. I looked on their site and that is so they can invite friends from my contacts. I didn't sign up, maybe i will later, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. https://help.nextdoor.com/s/article/About-android-app-permissions?language=en_US https://help.nextdoor.com/s/article/About-android-app-permis...
  - benglish11 7y ago
    I have the iphone app and it didn't require this permission or maybe it asked and I denied it. Is that not possible in android?
  - Normal_gaussian 7y ago
    I just checked my app, it had no permissions. I wouldn't allow it to do so, so I assume it asked, I said no, and we moved on.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
chasd00 7y ago
the one useful thing Nextdoor is good for is lost/found pets. Other than that, i've never liked it. I have a Ring and some of it is just downright funny. > "suspicious person on my porch, be on the look out!" >> "um, that's the mailman."
_jal 7y ago
The only value Nextdoor provided me was making me aware that the asshole down the block is also a racist. Deleted that cesspool after confirming it was just another fear-inducer service for people who get off on that.

dunkelan 7y ago

I think the key term is "consumer-centric". Ring and other home cams are necessary peace of mind for a lot of people.

runjake 7y ago
Non-DIY plus subscriptions plus corporations rarely leads to "consumer-centric". More often it's almost solely profit-driven.
- criddell 7y ago
  What's wrong with subscriptions? If you are getting an ongoing service (like Spotify, or HBO, or magazine delivery, etc...) it seems that an ongoing fee makes sense.
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    Products turning into services, that's what wrong. You stop paying, the devices stop working. Or, they decide they're bored with providing the service, and pivot or get acquihired (or just decide to prod you into upgrading), the devices stop working. Plus, it seems that the new breed of service companies isn't satisfied with just providing a service in exchange of money. They also use the opportunity to exfiltrate as much data about you as they can get.
    - mynegation 7y ago
      That is fine. I am happily paying for Spotify as they provide me with tremendous value day over day. I spend much less on music than in the days of buying CDs and Have access to a huge catalogue, instantly.
    - criddell 7y ago
      You don't subscribe to cable tv or netflix?
      - 7y ago

Wistar 7y ago

My ex-neighborhood (Magnolia in Seattle) has had Flock Safety install 6 "AI" camera systems, two at each of the three entry/exit point of the neighborhood. Each installation has a camera overseeing entering traffic and one overseeing exiting traffic. The cameras have license-plate recognition and object detection for car color/make/model, pedestrians, bicyclists and even animals. Flock Safety charges $2,000 per year per camera. Magnolia is one of about 10 Seattle-area neighborhoods with Flock Safety cameras installed. The Magnolia residents themselves pay for the cameras and service. They all can log in to a web service and see the footage and ALPR lists, timestamps, etc. Friends I have who live there are thrilled with the system although the Seattle police seem to have little interest in the system telling the residents that they are only interested in seeing footage that shows suspicious activities or is directly related to a crime. https://www.flocksafety.com/ https://www.flocksafety.com/ Porch pirates are so bad in my new neighborhood that I admit to wanting one of these on my dead-end culdesac and have investigated what it would take to build such a system myself.

knicholes 7y ago
1. Set up some raspberry pis with cameras that run a webserver that when hit, it returns the current image. 2. Create a backend that queries each camera for their current image. 3. Run the images through some object recognition neural network (fastai has some great object recognition tutorials). 4. Make your backend stitch together the images from each camera to make a video of what was being recognized when objects of interest were detected (each camera will create its own video) 5. Create a nice little UI/App for everyone to view the movies with some filtering in place (time of day, object(s) of interest). I want to create something like this as well. All of the pieces seem to be pretty straightforward to me except for figuring out power and network connectivity. I guess each neighbor would have to configure the device to use their SSID... and hope someone doesn't steal the raspberry pi and get the SSID credentials from memory... Maybe just make the neighbors use a separate network?
- Wistar 7y ago
  Wow. Thank you. There is an OpenALPR project for license plate recognition. https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr Also at: http://doc.openalpr.com/opensource.html http://doc.openalpr.com/opensource.html And a ready-to-go version you can buy/subscribe based on their stuff: http://www.openalpr.com/ http://www.openalpr.com/