4 ms·

I'm puzzled why they would go to the expense of using real time satellite imagery for this, versus mounting a camera on a light pole in the parking lot.

by dmd 13y ago

kfcm 13y ago
This is the exact same thought I had when reading the story. Not only would it be cheaper, but you could follow each vehicle through the lot and figure out the traffic flow patterns better. Plus, to tie in with this other front-page story ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7346629 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7346629 ), you could track the plates of the cars, and tie that in with retail cellular tracking ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5154089 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5154089 ). Facial recognition still needs a couple of years. Over time, you could tie the cellular phone, vehicle, and electronic payment (debit or credit card) to an individual. Continual tracking. And all brought to you by technology. In the words of Pogo: "We have met the enemy...and he is us."
- k2enemy 13y ago
  That, and you can see the parking lot on cloudy days too.
- craigching 13y ago
  > you could track the plates of the cars, and tie that in with retail cellular tracking ... Facial recognition still needs a couple of years. Over time, you could tie the cellular phone, vehicle, and electronic payment (debit or credit card) to an individual. Continual tracking. No thanks. The day that happens is the day I stop shopping there. That would be the "creepy" mentioned in the story.
baldeagle 13y ago
I would guess ease of roll out. It is a MVP, a test that could be run on a large batch of store without having to wait on a bunch of hardware being installed. It likely offers a similar picture to the alogrithyms, making the mining less difficult. Since it is proving worthy, parking lot cameras might be next.
maxerickson 13y ago
They don't. It isn't real time imagery, they are correlating the number of cars in the parking lot with the transaction counts from the store to estimate how many of the people that showed up at that particular time actually bought something.
angersock 13y ago
Because that's about twenty more fucks than anyone cares to give. The problem is "what is our occupancy in the parking lot"--the solution is as simple as just buying a few sat images. Cameras imply installation, monitoring, data storage, analysis...it's just a colossal pain in the ass compared to buying some imagery and being done with it.
8ig8 13y ago
Because from space they can also take images of the Home Depot parking lots. (maybe?)
tomswartz07 13y ago
Or perhaps even just counting the number of people walking through the doors vs. the number at the checkout tills?

I'm puzzled why they would go to the expense of using real time satellite imagery for this, versus mounting a camera on a light pole in the parking lot.

by dmd 13y ago

I'm puzzled why they would go to the expense of using real time satellite imagery for this, versus mounting a camera on a light pole in the parking lot.

kfcm 13y ago

This is the exact same thought I had when reading the story. Not only would it be cheaper, but you could follow each vehicle through the lot and figure out the traffic flow patterns better. Plus, to tie in with this other front-page story ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7346629 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7346629 ), you could track the plates of the cars, and tie that in with retail cellular tracking ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5154089 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5154089 ). Facial recognition still needs a couple of years. Over time, you could tie the cellular phone, vehicle, and electronic payment (debit or credit card) to an individual. Continual tracking. And all brought to you by technology. In the words of Pogo: "We have met the enemy...and he is us."

k2enemy 13y ago
That, and you can see the parking lot on cloudy days too.
craigching 13y ago
> you could track the plates of the cars, and tie that in with retail cellular tracking ... Facial recognition still needs a couple of years. Over time, you could tie the cellular phone, vehicle, and electronic payment (debit or credit card) to an individual. Continual tracking. No thanks. The day that happens is the day I stop shopping there. That would be the "creepy" mentioned in the story.

baldeagle 13y ago

I would guess ease of roll out. It is a MVP, a test that could be run on a large batch of store without having to wait on a bunch of hardware being installed. It likely offers a similar picture to the alogrithyms, making the mining less difficult. Since it is proving worthy, parking lot cameras might be next.

maxerickson 13y ago

They don't. It isn't real time imagery, they are correlating the number of cars in the parking lot with the transaction counts from the store to estimate how many of the people that showed up at that particular time actually bought something.

angersock 13y ago

Because that's about twenty more fucks than anyone cares to give. The problem is "what is our occupancy in the parking lot"--the solution is as simple as just buying a few sat images. Cameras imply installation, monitoring, data storage, analysis...it's just a colossal pain in the ass compared to buying some imagery and being done with it.

8ig8 13y ago

Because from space they can also take images of the Home Depot parking lots. (maybe?)

tomswartz07 13y ago

Or perhaps even just counting the number of people walking through the doors vs. the number at the checkout tills?