| June 5, 2008
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The Eyes of the LORD vs eyes of Antichrist |
2 Chronicles 16:9a
"For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His
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Daniel 8:23-25
"In the latter period of their rule,
When the transgressors have run their course,
A king will arise,
Insolent and skilled in intrigue.
"His power will be mighty, but not by his own power,
And he will destroy to an extraordinary degree
And prosper and perform his will;
He will destroy mighty men and the holy people.
"And through his shrewdness
He will cause deceit to succeed by his influence;
And he will magnify himself in his heart,
And he will destroy many while they are at ease.
He will even oppose the Prince of princes,
But he will be broken without human agency.
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Daniel 11:38a
"But instead he will honor a god of fortresses |
Revelation 1:7
BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.
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| Shalom in Christ Jesus, |
It is very difficult at
times to compose these alerts without getting very 'steamed' at the state of my
country (the USA) and the overall condition of the world in general and the
church specifically. In this case I am not talking about the poor and famine
plagued, war ravaged nations, but the sleeping West that has been duped into
thinking a World Police State is somehow needed in order to keep them safe.
Much more, I am convinced that outside of the normal regional boundaries such
as Israel, Lebanon, Iraq, and South East Asia etc., where there is indeed daily
terror, most of what has transpired has been an engineered masterpiece of
multiple groups reaching to the highest levels of the world's power structures.
The current 9/11 trials
break every law and principal that the American Justice System was built upon
and I cannot help but consider that this illegal Military Tribunal system was
set up because the Bush Administration knew that in a real court of law the
whole scam involving his Administration, Saudi Arabia and others would be blown
wide open and so this thing has to be covered up no matter what.
I know many would disagree
with me but all we need to do is look at every one of these so-called terror
events in the West to see that they have been used by these Governments to turn
around and again "attack" the people of these same countries like the United
States with unconstitional laws the reek with the hatred of antichrist.
The whole world is in the
hands of the evil one and that includes America and Britain. However, it seems
these countries as well as the other Western nations have now been given over
even more fully to demonic control as the similarity between the West and the
East shrinks daily. The end is indeed very near and our hope is the Blessed
Hope, the return or our Lord Jesus Christ, not this rotten, wretched world.
Meanwhile the Eyes of the
Lord search to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those
who are completely His (2 Chronicles 16:9a). This is the answer to the
question: "what about the pygmy on the remote island that never heard the
gospel?" Well, if that person has a right heart seeking the truth put there by
God based on Romans 1 among other scriptures, He puts the responsibility solely
on Himself to send someone to bring that person the gospel.
Meanwhile, since he is not omniscient,
Satan is making sure his 'son' the antichrist will have all the eyes he needs
via technology. It used to be a debate how this would or could happen but now
we are seeing that foolish man is making it all to easy for him to accomplish
this task
BE/\LERT!
Scott Brisk
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Robobug goes to war: Troops to use electronic insects to spot enemy 'by end of the year'
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LONDON DAILY MAIL [Associated Newspapers/DMGT] - By Daniel Cochlin - May 4, 2008 - - - British defence giant BAE Systems is creating a series of tiny electronic spiders, insects and snakes that could become the eyes and ears of soldiers on the battlefield, helping to save thousands of lives. Prototypes could be on the front line by the end of the year, scuttling into potential danger areas such as booby-trapped buildings or enemy hideouts to relay images back to troops safely positioned nearby. Soldiers will carry the robots into combat and use a small tracked vehicle to transport them closer to their targets. Then they would swarm into the building and relay images back to the soldiers' hand-held or wrist-mounted computers, warning them of any threats inside. BAE Systems has just signed a £19million contract to develop the robots for the US Army. Plans for a creature that can crawl like a spider are said to be well developed, and researchers eventually hope to be able to create creatures that can slither like a snake or fly like a dragonfly. While some of the creatures will be fitted with small cameras, others will be equipped with sensors that will be able to detect the presence of chemical, biological or radioactive weapons. A computer-generated video from BAE Systems shows the tiny invaders being released by a soldier, before scouting out a suspect building, which is finally blown up by ground forces. BAE Systems scientists from the UK and America plan an army of the electronic bugs, and have ambitions to equip every front-line soldier with them. - - - - Read Full Report |
Video: Army's Bug-Bot Swarm Takes on Terrorists
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WIRED NEWS [Advance/Newhouse] >Danger Room Blog - By Noah Shachtman - May 2, 2008
Perhaps this picture of a bug-like robot that joins a military horde of intelligent machines intrigued you. If so, then you'll probably enjoy this animated promotional video, from defense contractor BAE Systems. In it, the company off its vision for "Micro Autonomous Systems and Technology" -- tiny, swarming, insectoid robots. The Army just gave BAE Systems a $38 million contract to head up a consortium of researchers into the next-gen mini-drones.
See Video Here
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Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Scientists at Work on Robobugs
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THE WASHINGTON POST [Wash Post Group/Graham] - By Rick Weiss - Page A03 - October 9, 2007
Vanessa Alarcon saw them while working at an antiwar rally in Lafayette Square last month.
"I heard someone say, 'Oh my god, look at those,' " the college senior from New York recalled. "I look up and I'm like, 'What the hell is that?' They looked kind of like dragonflies or little helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects."
Out in the crowd, Bernard Crane saw them, too.
"I'd never seen anything like it in my life," the Washington lawyer said. "They were large for dragonflies. I thought, 'Is that mechanical, or is that alive?' "
That is just one of the questions hovering over a handful of similar sightings at political events in Washington and New York. Some suspect the insectlike drones are high-tech surveillance tools, perhaps deployed by the Department of Homeland Security.
Others think they are, well, dragonflies -- an ancient order of insects that even biologists concede look about as robotic as a living creature can look.
No agency admits to having deployed insect-size spy drones. But a number of U.S. government and private entities acknowledge they are trying. Some federally funded teams are even growing live insects with computer chips in them, with the goal of mounting spyware on their bodies and controlling their flight muscles remotely.
The robobugs could follow suspects, guide missiles to targets or navigate the crannies of collapsed buildings to find survivors.
The technical challenges of creating robotic insects are daunting, and most experts doubt that fully working models exist yet. [Ed. Note: Now we know they indeed do!]
"If you find something, let me know," said Gary Anderson of the Defense Department's Rapid Reaction Technology Office.
But the CIA secretly developed a simple dragonfly snooper as long ago as the 1970s. And given recent advances, even skeptics say there is always a chance that some agency has quietly managed to make something operational.
"America can be pretty sneaky," said Tom Ehrhard, a retired Air Force colonel and expert in unmanned aerial vehicles who is now at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonprofit Washington-based research institute.
Robotic fliers have been used by the military since World War II, but in the past decade their numbers and level of sophistication have increased enormously. Defense Department documents describe nearly 100 different models in use today, some as tiny as birds, and some the size of small planes.
All told, the nation's fleet of flying robots logged more than 160,000 flight hours last year -- a more than fourfold increase since 2003. A recent report by the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College warned that if traffic rules are not clarified soon, the glut of unmanned vehicles "could render military airspace chaotic and potentially dangerous."
But getting from bird size to bug size is not a simple matter of making everything smaller.
"You can't make a conventional robot of metal and ball bearings and just shrink the design down," said Ronald Fearing, a roboticist at the University of California at Berkeley. For one thing, the rules of aerodynamics change at very tiny scales and require wings that flap in precise ways -- a huge engineering challenge.
Only recently have scientists come to understand how insects fly -- a biomechanical feat that, despite the evidence before scientists' eyes, was for decades deemed "theoretically impossible." Just last month, researchers at Cornell University published a physics paper clarifying how dragonflies adjust the relative motions of their front and rear wings to save energy while hovering.
That kind of finding is important to roboticists because flapping fliers tend to be energy hogs, and batteries are heavy.
The CIA was among the earliest to tackle the problem. The "insectothopter," developed by the agency's Office of Research and Development 30 years ago, looked just like a dragonfly and contained a tiny gasoline engine to make the four wings flap. It flew but was ultimately declared a failure because it could not handle crosswinds.
Agency spokesman George Little said he could not talk about what the CIA may have done since then. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service also declined to discuss the topic.
Only the FBI offered a declarative denial. "We don't have anything like that," a spokesman said.
The Defense Department is trying, though.
In one approach, researchers funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are inserting computer chips into moth pupae -- the intermediate stage between a caterpillar and a flying adult -- and hatching them into healthy "cyborg moths."
The Hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems project aims to create literal shutterbugs -- camera-toting insects whose nerves have grown into their internal silicon chip so that wranglers can control their activities. DARPA researchers are also raising cyborg beetles with power for various instruments to be generated by their muscles.
"You might recall that Gandalf the friendly wizard in the recent classic 'Lord of the Rings' used a moth to call in air support," DARPA program manager Amit Lal said at a symposium in August. Today, he said, "this science fiction vision is within the realm of reality."
A DARPA spokeswoman denied a reporter's request to interview Lal or others on the project.
The cyborg insect project has its share of doubters.
"I'll be seriously dead before that program deploys," said vice admiral Joe Dyer, former commander of the Naval Air Systems Command, now at iRobot in Burlington, Mass., which makes household and military robots.
By contrast, fully mechanical micro-fliers are advancing quickly.
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have made a "microbat ornithopter" that flies freely and fits in the palm of one's hand. A Vanderbilt University team has made a similar device.
With their sail-like wings, neither of those would be mistaken for insects. In July, however, a Harvard University team got a truly fly-like robot airborne, its synthetic wings buzzing at 120 beats per second.
"It showed that we can manufacture the articulated, high-speed structures that you need to re-create the complex wing motions that insects produce," said team leader Robert Wood.
The fly's vanishingly thin materials were machined with lasers, then folded into three-dimensional form "like a micro-origami," he said. Alternating electric fields make the wings flap. The whole thing weighs just 65 milligrams, or a little more than the plastic head of a push pin.
Still, it can fly only while attached to a threadlike tether that supplies power, evidence that significant hurdles remain.
In August, at the International Symposium on Flying Insects and Robots, held in Switzerland, Japanese researchers introduced radio-controlled fliers with four-inch wingspans that resemble hawk moths. Those who watch them fly, its creator wrote in the program, "feel something of 'living souls.' "
Others, taking a tip from the CIA, are making fliers that run on chemical fuels instead of batteries. The "entomopter," in early stages of development at the Georgia Institute of Technology and resembling a toy plane more than a bug, converts liquid fuel into a hot gas, which powers four flapping wings and ancillary equipment.
"You can get more energy out of a drop of gasoline than out of a battery the size of a drop of gasoline," said team leader Robert Michelson.
Even if the technical hurdles are overcome, insect-size fliers will always be risky investments.
"They can get eaten by a bird, they can get caught in a spider web," said Fearing of Berkeley. "No matter how smart you are -- you can put a Pentium in there -- if a bird comes at you at 30 miles per hour there's nothing you can do about it."
Protesters might even nab one with a net -- one of many reasons why Ehrhard, the former Air Force colonel, and other experts said they doubted that the hovering bugs spotted in Washington were spies.
So what was seen by Crane, Alarcon and a handful of others at the D.C. march -- and as far back as 2004, during the Republican National Convention in New York, when one observant but perhaps paranoid peace-march participant described on the Web "a jet-black dragonfly hovering about 10 feet off the ground, precisely in the middle of 7th avenue . . . watching us"?
They probably saw dragonflies, said Jerry Louton, an entomologist at the National Museum of Natural History. Washington is home to some large, spectacularly adorned dragonflies that "can knock your socks off," he said.
At the same time, he added, some details do not make sense. Three people at the D.C. event independently described a row of spheres, the size of small berries, attached along the tails of the big dragonflies -- an accoutrement that Louton could not explain. And all reported seeing at least three maneuvering in unison.
"Dragonflies never fly in a pack," he said.
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice said her group is investigating witness reports and has filed Freedom of Information Act requests with several federal agencies. If such devices are being used to spy on political activists, she said, "it would be a significant violation of people's civil rights."
For many roboticists still struggling to get off the ground, however, that concern -- and their technology's potential role -- seems superfluous.
"I don't want people to get paranoid, but what can I say?" Fearing said. "Cellphone cameras are already everywhere. It's not that much different."
Original Report Here
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| Britain makes camera that "sees" under clothes |
REUTERS [Thomson-Reuters] - By Luke Baker - March 9, 2008
LONDON - A British company has developed a camera that can detect weapons, drugs or explosives hidden under people's clothes from up to 25 meters away in what could be a breakthrough for the security industry.
The T5000 camera, created by a company called ThruVision, uses what it calls "passive imaging technology" to identify objects by the natural electromagnetic rays -- known as Terahertz or T-rays -- that they emit.
The high-powered camera can detect hidden objects from up to 80 feet away and is effective even when people are moving. It does not reveal physical body details and the screening is harmless, the company says.
The technology, which has military and civilian applications and could be used in crowded airports, shopping malls or sporting events, will be unveiled at a scientific development exhibition sponsored by Britain's Home Office on March 12-13.
"Acts of terrorism have shaken the world in recent years and security precautions have been tightened globally," said Clive Beattie, the chief executive of ThruVision.
"The ability to see both metallic and non-metallic items on people out to 25 meters is certainly a key capability that will enhance any comprehensive security system."
While the technology may enhance detection, it may also increase concerns that Britain is becoming a surveillance society, with hundreds of thousands of closed-circuit television cameras already monitoring people countrywide every day.
ThruVision came up with the technology for the T5000 in collaboration with the European Space Agency and from studying research by astronomers into dying stars.
The technology works on the basis that all people and objects emit low levels of electromagnetic radiation. Terahertz rays lie somewhere between infrared and microwaves on the electromagnetic spectrum and travel through clouds and walls.
Depending on the material, the signature of the wave is different, so that explosives can be distinguished from a block of clay and cocaine is different from a bag of flour.
Original Report Here |
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Unmarked chopper patrols NY city from high above
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ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Tom Hays - May 23, 2008NEW YORK - On a cloudless spring day, the NYPD helicopter soars over the city, its sights set on the Statue of Liberty. A dramatic close-up of Lady Liberty's frozen gaze fills one of three flat-screen computer monitors mounted on a console. Hundreds of sightseers below are oblivious to the fact that a helicopter is peering down on them from a mile and a half away. "They don't even know we're here," said crew chief John Diaz, speaking into a headset over the din of the aircraft's engine. The helicopter's unmarked paint job belies what's inside: an arsenal of sophisticated surveillance and tracking equipment powerful enough to read license plates-or scan pedestrians' faces-from high above the nation's largest metropolis. Police say the chopper's sweeps of landmarks and other potential targets are invaluable in helping guard against another terrorist attack, providing a see-but-avoid-being-seen advantage against bad guys. "It looks like just another helicopter in the sky," said Assistant Police Chief Charles Kammerdener, who oversees the department's aviation unit. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said that no other U.S. law enforcement agency "has anything that comes close" to the surveillance chopper, which was designed by engineers at Bell Helicopter and computer technicians based on NYPD specifications. The chopper is named simply "23"-for the number of police officers killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The $10 million helicopter is just part of the department's efforts to adopt cutting-edge technology for its counterterrorism operations. The NYPD also plans to spend tens of millions of dollars strengthening security in the lower Manhattan business district with a network of closed-circuit television cameras and license-plate readers posted at bridges, tunnels and other entry points. Police have also deployed hundreds of radiation monitors-some worn on belts like pagers, others mounted on cars and in helicopters-to detect dirty bombs. Kelly even envisions someday using futuristic "stationary airborne devices" similar to blimps to conduct reconnaissance and guard against chemical, biological and radiological threats. Civil rights advocates are skeptical about the push for more surveillance, arguing it reflects the NYPD's evolution into ad hoc spy agency. "From a privacy perspective, there's always a concern that 'New York's Finest' are spending millions of dollars to engage in peeping tom activities," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. Police insist that law-abiding New Yorkers have nothing to fear. "Obviously, we're not looking into apartments," Diaz said during a recent flight. "We don't invade the privacy of individuals. We only want to observe anything that's going on in public." The helicopter's powers of observation come from a high-powered robotic camera mounted on a turret projecting from its nose like a periscope. The camera has infrared night-vision capabilities and a satellite navigation system that allows police to automatically zoom in on a location by typing in the address on a computer keyboard. The surveillance system can beam live footage to police command centers or even to wireless hand-held devices. "The commander on the ground can see what we're seeing," Diaz said. On this flight, the helicopter used the camera to look for signs of trouble at several key transportation sites: the decks of Staten Island ferry terminal, the stanchions of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, the giant air vents feeding the Lincoln Tunnel. All of them passed inspection. Without leaving Manhattan airspace, the chopper also was able to get a crystal-clear picture of jetliners waiting to take off from LaGuardia Airport and to survey Kennedy International Airport's jet fuel lines, which were targeted in a plot uncovered last year. The chopper has helped track down fleeing suspects, including a recent case of a gunman who had shot his wife in Queens. As officers on the ground worried about how to approach the suspect's car, the camera in the sky hovered overhead, peeked inside the vehicle and found that he had already shot and killed himself. During Pope Benedict XVI's recent visit, 23 patrolled the skies, at one point receiving a call from officers who had spotted a suspicious man with a camera on a rooftop near the pontiff's residence. Diaz radioed back that it was a false alarm. "There was a modeling shoot going on," he said. Original Report Here
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| NYPD Helicopter Views Faces from Miles Away |
WIRED NEWS [Advance/Newhouse] - By Kim Zetter - June 5, 2008An ubertech "birdy bird," as Fox News is calling it, is flying over the skies of Manhattan allowing police to see and recognize a face from two miles away, peer inside a building from three to four miles away, and track a suspect car from 12 miles away. The story came out a week ago, but Fox News now has video inside the copter. The $10 million vehicle was designed by Bell Helicopter and has infrared night-vision and GPS navigation that allows police to zoom in on a location by typing in an address. Live footage captured by the helicopter's cameras can be transmitted to a police command center or to handheld devices on the ground. Police used it in a recent gun situation to determine that a man holed up inside his car had killed himself, making it safe for authorities on the ground to approach the vehicle. Police insist they're only using the helicopter for legitimate law enforcement purposes in public places and would never peer inside someone's home, but privacy activists have concerns. Original Report Here |
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Spy-in-the-sky drone sets sights on Miami
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REUTERS [Thomson-Reuters] - By Tom Brown - March 26, 2008 MIAMI - Miami police could soon be the first in the United States to use cutting-edge, spy-in-the-sky technology to beef up their fight against crime. A small pilotless drone manufactured by Honeywell International, capable of hovering and "staring" using electro-optic or infrared sensors, is expected to make its debut soon in the skies over the Florida Everglades. If use of the drone wins Federal Aviation Administration approval after tests, the Miami-Dade Police Department will start flying the 14-pound (6.3 kg) drone over urban areas with an eye toward full-fledged employment in crime fighting. "Our intentions are to use it only in tactical situations as an extra set of eyes," said police department spokesman Juan Villalba. "We intend to use this to benefit us in carrying out our mission," he added, saying the wingless Honeywell aircraft, which fits into a backpack and is capable of vertical takeoff and landing, seems ideally suited for use by SWAT teams in hostage situations or dealing with "barricaded subjects." Miami-Dade police are not alone, however. Taking their lead from the U.S. military, which has used drones in Iraq and Afghanistan for years, law enforcement agencies across the country have voiced a growing interest in using drones for domestic crime-fighting missions. Known in the aerospace industry as UAVs, for unmanned aerial vehicles, drones have been under development for decades in the United States. The CIA acknowledges that it developed a dragonfly-sized UAV known as the "Insectohopter" for laser-guided spy operations as long ago as the 1970s. And other advanced work on robotic flyers has clearly been under way for quite some time. "The FBI is experimenting with a variety of unmanned aerial vehicles," said Marcus Thomas, an assistant director of the bureau's Operational Technology Division. "At this point they have been used mainly for search and rescue missions," he added. "It certainly is an up-and-coming technology and the FBI is researching additional uses for UAVs." SAFETY, PRIVACY CONCERNSU.S. Customs and Border Protection has been flying drones over the Arizona desert and southwest border with Mexico since 2006 and will soon deploy one in North Dakota to patrol the Canadian border as well. This month, Customs and Border Protection spokesman Juan Munoz Torres said the agency would also begin test flights of a modified version of its large Predator B drones, built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, over the Gulf of Mexico. - - - - Read Full Report
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Houston: Police Secrecy Behind Unmanned Aircraft Test
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KPRC-TV NBC2 HOUSTON, TX [Post-Newsweek/Wash Post Group/Graham] - By Stephen Dean - November 21, 2007WALLER COUNTY, Texas -- Houston police started testing unmanned aircraft and the event was shrouded in secrecy, but it was captured on tape by Local 2 Investigates. Neighbors in rural Waller County said they thought a top-secret military venture was under way among the farmland and ranches, some 70 miles northwest of Houston. KPRC Local 2 Investigates had four hidden cameras aimed at a row of mysterious black trucks. Satellite dishes and a swirling radar added to the neighbors' suspense. Then, cameras were rolling as an unmanned aircraft was launched into the sky and operated by remote control. Houston police cars were surrounding the land with a roadblock in place to check each of the dignitaries arriving for the invitation-only event. The invitation spelled out, "NO MEDIA ALLOWED." HPD Chief Harold Hurtt attended, along with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and dozens of officers from various police agencies in the Houston area. Few of the guests would comment as they left the test site. News Chopper 2 had a Local 2 Investigates team following the aircraft for more than one hour as it circled overhead. Its wings spanned 10 feet and it circled at an altitude of 1,500 feet. Operators from a private firm called Insitu, Inc. manned remote controls from inside the fleet of black trucks as the guests watched a live feed from the high-powered camera aboard the 40-pound aircraft. "I wasn't ready to publicize this," Executive Assistant Police Chief Martha Montalvo said. She and other department leaders hastily organized a news conference when they realized Local 2 Investigates had captured the entire event on camera. Montalvo told reporters the unmanned aircraft would be used for "mobility" or traffic issues, evacuations during storms, homeland security, search and rescue, and also "tactical." She admitted that could include covert police actions and she said she was not ruling out someday using the drones for writing traffic tickets. A large number of the officers at the test site were assigned to the department's ticket-writing Radar Task Force. Capt. Tom Runyan insisted they were only there to provide "site security," even though KPRC cameras spotted those officers heavily participating in the test flight. Houston police contacted KPRC from the test site, claiming the entire airspace was restricted by the Federal Aviation Administration. Police even threatened action from the FAA if the Local 2 helicopter remained in the area. However, KPRC reported it had already checked with the FAA on numerous occasions and found no flight restrictions around the site, a point conceded by Montalvo. - - - South Texas College of Law professor Rocky Rhodes, who teaches the constitution and privacy issues, said, "One issue is going to be law enforcement using this and when, by using these drones, are they conducting a search in which they'd need probable cause or a warrant. If the drones are being used to get into private spaces and be able to view where the government cannot otherwise go, and to collect information that would not otherwise be able to collect, that's concerning to me." - - - - Read Full Report
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| D.C. police set to monitor 5,000 cameras |
THE WASHINGTON TIMES [News World Communications/Moon-Unification Church] - By Gary Emerling - April 9, 2008
D.C. officials are giving police access to more than 5,000 closed-circuit TV cameras citywide that monitor traffic, schools and public housing - a move that will give the District one of the largest surveillance networks in the country.
"The primary benefit of what we're doing is for public health and safety," said Darrell Darnell, director of the city's Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, who announced the initiative along with Mayor Adrian M. Fenty yesterday.
But the announcement left some civil liberties advocates and a key D.C. Council member concerned. - - -
The Video Interoperability for Public Safety (VIPS) program will consolidate the more than 5,200 cameras operated by D.C. agencies - including D.C. Public Schools and the D.C. Housing Authority - into one network managed by the city's Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.
The program will allow agencies to share camera video feeds and provide the city with a network that is actively monitored and that Mr. Darnell said will operate "24 hours a day, 365 days a year."
Mr. Fenty, a Democrat, said the initiative will enhance the District's countersurveillance and public-safety capabilities by increasing the number of cameras available for authorities to monitor.
For example, the mayor said the Metropolitan Police Department currently monitors 92 surveillance cameras in high-crime neighborhoods. The number of cameras available for the department's use in those neighborhoods will increase to 225 under the initiative, although Mr. Fenty said police and other agencies also will have access to 1,388 outside cameras and 3,874 cameras inside buildings throughout the city.
Nearly 3,500 of the cameras are operated by D.C. Public Schools. The city's transportation department operates 131 of the devices, which are normally trained on streets but can swivel.
"It is important to note, however, that there are many more cameras that are not in high-crime areas that MPD can also use in either the prevention or fighting of crime," Mr. Fenty said.
Surveillance camera networks have been used throughout the country and around the world by advocates who say the devices are effective tools for crime prevention.
Chicago, widely seen as the U.S. city that has made the most aggressive use of surveillance technology, has installed more than 2,000 cameras and began linking the devices into a single network in 2004. The camera network in London, referred to as the "Ring of Steel," is thought to be the most extensive in the world, employing about 500,000 cameras. - - -
BIG BROTHER
D.C. officials yesterday said they plan to link more than 5,000 cameras to form a surveillance network to help combat crime and terrorism. The following city agencies have cameras:
D.C. Housing Authority: 720
D.C. Public Schools: 3,452
Department of Parks and Recreation: 181
Department of Transportation: 131
Metropolitan Police Department: 92
Department of Corrections: 218
Office of Property Management/Protective Services Division: 468
D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency: 4
TOTAL: 5,266
Read Full Article |
| N.Y. Senator Pushes For Cameras On Cop Handguns |
ASSOCIATED PRESS - May 12, 2008
ALBANY, N.Y. ? In a flash, a police officer draws a handgun from its holster. Less than two seconds later, a red laser and bright light shine at whatever is in the gun barrel's path while a mini-camera records it all.
That's how mini-cams on police handguns would work under a proposal gaining support in New York, which would be the first state in the nation to require the technology. State police were briefed on the technology and are reviewing it for a possible pilot program, said Michael Balboni, the state's deputy secretary for public safety.
The device could create a critical visual and audio record of police shootings for use in court, said state Sen. Eric Adams, a Brooklyn Democrat and former police officer. He is drumming up support for testing the cameras with the state police SWAT squad.
Adams said recordings from the $695 cameras couldn't be altered by a police officer and would quell many questions after controversial police shootings, like the deaths in New York City of Amadou Diallo in 1999 and Sean Bell in 2006. - - -
Some police departments have put cameras on Tasers in the last couple years, but there is no major national effort by police to seek or block gun cameras at the federal level, according to the National Association of Police Organizations, a major lobbyist.
"We believe the state of New York can lead the country," said Adams, who retired after 21 years as a New York police officer. "There no longer can be a question mark that lingers after shootings."
Adams, who was never involved in a shooting, said the lights on the 5-ounce camera could be turned off if they would expose the officer to danger in a dark area. But the camera and optional audio recorder would remain operating for up to 60 minutes.
He said the images would also help identify suspects who get away. He wants a pilot program that would allow testing by police at shooting ranges. That could lead to a law mandating the gun cameras, he said. - - - -
Read Full Report |
| London-Like 'Crime' Cams To Watch Orlando |
WKMG-TV6 CENTRAL FLORIDA / ORLANDO - March 24, 2008
ORLANDO, Fla. -- High-tech cameras similar to those used in London will be installed in busy sections of Orlando to help curb crime, Local 6 has confirmed.
The IRIS cams -- also known as "intelligent cameras" -- are being placed in downtown Orlando and Parramore.
Some of the same cameras were tested at Lake Eola last July 4. Local 6 showed video of the camera picking out faces from across the lake.
Critics of the cameras are calling the cameras an invasion of privacy.
However, others said they liked the idea.
"I think it's a good idea," Orlando resident Michael Bishop said. "There is a lot of crime that goes on, on these streets that goes undetected because nobody is there to see it."
"God forbid something should happen to anybody," resident Elizabeth Serge said. "They then have something on tape showing who they could go after and who could be the possible suspect."
Monday, Orlando's mayor and police chief will outline the specifics.
Original Report Here
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New York: There's No Hiding From The Truth - You're On Camera!
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Mayor's Focus On Turning Big Apple Into Surveillance City
NEW YORK POST [News Corporation/Murdoch] - By Samuel Goldsmith - October 15, 2007
Mayor Bloomberg has said New Yorkers must face the fact that they're being watched by security cameras all the time.
He isn't kidding.
It's not just the Police Department and MTA watching them. Countless private security cameras eye the city at all times - and some are broadcast to the masses.
A Post reporter walking in Times Square was captured by at least 54 outdoor surveillance cameras in just eight blocks. From 42nd Street to 49th Street, there are cameras on top of buildings, embedded into walls, on top of street poles and tucked under awnings - and that's just the cameras visible to the naked eye.
Four of the cameras are operated by the Web-cam network EarthCam.com, which streams live camera feeds on its Web site for the whole world to see. At any moment, people can tune in to those cameras and dozens of others around the city and get immediate imagery.
"Hidden cameras enhance people's safety," said Brian Cury, founder of EarthCam. "It's a way to share information and make people's lives better."
EarthCam has dozens of cameras in New York for both public use via the Web site and private use for companies. The site boasts the biggest network of Web cams in the world.
During Bloomberg's recent trip to London, where the mayor scoped out the city's massive surveillance-camera system known as the "Ring of Steel," Hizzoner said, "In this day and age, if you think that cameras aren't watching you all the time, you are very naive."
Bloomberg wants to follow the model in London and dramatically increase the number of cameras in New York City. The city is already beefing up its surveillance in various places.
Original Report Here
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| RTC to Install Surveillance Cameras Along Las Vegas Strip |
KLAS-TV 8 CBS LAS VEGAS, NEVADA [Landmark Communications] - By Alyson McCarthy - October 12, 2007
The Las Vegas Strip has one of the tightest security surveillance systems in the world. Soon, there will be more eyes watching us on the Strip. That's not sitting well with some people.
The Regional Transportation Commission, which operates the CAT bus system, approved a $554,000 contract with Motorola to install cameras along Las Vegas Boulevard.
Four cameras will be installed between Tropicana Avenue and Fremont Street.
The RTC says the closed-circuit television surveillance network would help ensure the safety of bus passengers and employees by supplying live, continuous real-time video feeds. The RTC plans to share the video feeds with Metro Police.
Representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada have criticized the plan saying it is another example of government invading privacy to spy on people. - - -
The RTC says the money for the system comes from a Homeland Security Department grant. It's expected to be up and running by February 2008.
Original Report Here |
New airport agents check for danger in fliers' facial expressions
US finally employing time tested Israeli methods
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MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS - By Kaitlin Dirrig - August 15, 2007WASHINGTON - Next time you go to the airport, there may be more eyes on you than you notice. Specially trained security personnel are watching body language and facial cues of passengers for signs of bad intentions. The watcher could be the attendant who hands you the tray for your laptop or the one standing behind the ticket-checker. Or the one next to the curbside baggage attendant. They're called Behavior Detection Officers, and they're part of several recent security upgrades, Transportation Security Administrator Kip Hawley told an aviation industry group in Washington last month. He described them as "a wonderful tool to be able to identify and do risk management prior to somebody coming into the airport or approaching the crowded checkpoint." - - - At the heart of the new screening system is a theory that when people try to conceal their emotions, they reveal their feelings in flashes that Ekman, a pioneer in the field, calls "micro-expressions." Fear and disgust are the key ones, he said, because they're associated with deception. Behavior detection officers work in pairs. Typically, one officer sizes up passengers openly while the other seems to be performing a routine security duty. A passenger who arouses suspicion, whether by micro-expressions, social interaction or body language gets subtle but more serious scrutiny. A behavior specialist may decide to move in to help the suspicious passenger recover belongings that have passed through the baggage X-ray. Or he may ask where the traveler's going. If more alarms go off, officers will "refer" the person to law enforcement officials for further questioning. The strategy is based on a time-tested and successful Israeli model, but in the United States, the scrutiny is much less invasive, Ekman said. American officers receive 16 hours of training - far less than their Israeli counterparts - because U.S. officials want to be less intrusive. The use of "micro-expressions" to identify hidden emotions began nearly 30 years ago when Ekman and colleague Maureen O'Sullivan began studying videotapes of people telling lies. When they slowed down the videotapes, they noticed distinct facial movements and began to catalogue them. They were flickers of expression that lasted no more than a fraction of a second. The Department of Homeland Security hopes to dramatically enhance such security practices. Jay M. Cohen, undersecretary of Homeland Security for Science and Technology, said in May that he wants to automate passenger screening by using videocams and computers to measure and analyze heart rate, respiration, body temperature and verbal responses as well as facial micro-expressions. - - - - * Emphasis AddedRead Full Report
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| Street-sweeper cameras eye illegal parking |
THE WASHINGTON TIMES [News World Communications/Moon-Unification Church] - By Gary Emerling - April 2, 2008
D.C. officials have put cameras on light poles, police cars and government buildings. Now they're preparing to put them on street sweepers in the latest example of increasing surveillance of city residents.
The D.C. Council yesterday unanimously passed legislation introduced at the request of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty that will let officials equip the District's tractor-sized street-sweeping machines with cameras that can scan license plates and photograph vehicles illegally parked in a street-sweeping zone.
The bill will face a final vote by the council next month and would expand the District's automated enforcement network that already monitors red-light running and speeding. The city also operates 74 surveillance cameras affixed to light poles and buildings in neighborhoods as part of an effort to deter crime.
But critics have charged that the latest devices serve as a moneymaker for the city and an intrusion on privacy instead of a public safety tool, as officials contend. - - -
DPW officials say parking control officers are able to enforce street-sweeping regulations on only about 20 percent of the routes.
A 2007 agency study showed that street sweepers removed pollutants like oil and grease at a rate of 10 pounds per mile swept, while chemicals like nitrogen and phosphorus were brushed up at a rate of three pounds per mile swept.
"If we can encourage people to change their behavior so that we can sweep, then that's our point," Miss Grant said. "It's not about ticket writing; it's about being able to clean the streets."
The cameras will cost roughly $40,000 each and will be placed on two street sweepers initially. Warning notices will be issued during the first 45 days of the program. - - - -
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U.S. to Expand Domestic Use Of Spy Satellites
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL [News Corporation/Murdoch] - By Robert Block - August 15, 2007; Page A1The U.S.'s top intelligence official has greatly expanded the range of federal and local authorities who can get access to information from the nation's vast network of spy satellites in the U.S. The decision, made three months ago by Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell, places for the first time some of the U.S.'s most powerful intelligence-gathering tools at the disposal of domestic security officials. The move was authorized in a May 25 memo sent to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asking his department to facilitate access to the spy network on behalf of civilian agencies and law enforcement. Until now, only a handful of federal civilian agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey, have had access to the most basic spy-satellite imagery, and only for the purpose of scientific and environmental study. According to officials, one of the department's first objectives will be to use the network to enhance border security, determine how best to secure critical infrastructure and help emergency responders after natural disasters. Sometime next year, officials will examine how the satellites can aid federal and local law-enforcement agencies, covering both criminal and civil law. The department is still working on determining how it will engage law enforcement officials and what kind of support it will give them. Access to the high-tech surveillance tools would, for the first time, allow Homeland Security and law-enforcement officials to see real-time, high-resolution images and data, which would allow them, for example, to identify smuggler staging areas, a gang safehouse, or possibly even a building being used by would-be terrorists to manufacture chemical weapons. - - - - Read Full Report
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| Spy Satellites Turned on the U.S. |
Dems Call for Moratorium on Program, Expressing Privacy and Legal ConcernsABC NEWS [America] - By Jason Ryan - September 6, 2007Traditionally, powerful spy satellites have been used to search for strategic threats overseas ranging from nuclear weapons to terrorist training camps. But now the Department of Homeland Security has developed a new office to use the satellites to secure U.S. borders and protect the country from natural disasters. Department of Homeland Security officials testified Thursday before the House Homeland Security Committee about the program and faced extensive criticism about the privacy and civil liberty concerns of the new office, called the National Applications Office. The purpose of the National Applications Office is to provide the Department of Homeland Security and civil, state and local emergency planners with imagery and data from satellites run by the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. Homeland Security Chief Intelligence Officer Charlie Allen said overhead imagery was used extensively after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and has been used by the Secret Service for security preparations for events such as the Super Bowl. "Some Homeland Security and law enforcement users also in the past routinely accessed imagery and other technical intelligence directly from the intelligence community, especially in response to national disasters such as hurricanes and forest fires," Allen said. Committee members expressed concern about abuse of the satellite imagery, charging that Homeland Security had not informed the oversight committee about the program. "What's most disturbing is learning about it from The Wall Street Journal," said Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. The lawmakers also expressed concern about using military capabilities for U.S. law enforcement and Homeland Security operations, potentially a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars the military from serving as a law enforcement body within the United States, except where specifically authorized by Congress or the Constitution. - - - - Read Full Report |
| 'Virtual fence' OK'd for U.S.-Mexico border |
ASSOCIATED PRESS - February 22, 2008WASHINGTON -- A 28-mile "virtual fence" that will use radars and surveillance cameras to try to catch people entering the country illegally has gotten final government approval. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced approval of the fence on Friday. The fence, built by the Boeing Co., uses technology the government plans to extend to other areas of the Arizona border, as well as to sections of Texas. - - - The virtual fence is part of a national plan to secure the southwest border with physical barriers and high-tech detection capabilities intended to stop illegal immigrants on foot and drug smugglers in vehicles. As of Thursday, 302 miles of fencing had been constructed. - - - The virtual fence system includes 98-foot unmanned surveillance towers that are equipped with an array of sophisticated technology including radar, sensors and cameras capable of distinguishing people from cattle at a distance of about 10 miles. The cameras are powerful enough to tell group sizes and whether people are carrying backpacks that may contain weapons or drugs. - - - - Read Full Report |
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Military Use of Unmanned Aircraft Soars
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ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Lolita C. Baldor - January 1, 2008WASHINGTON - The military's reliance on unmanned aircraft that can watch, hunt and sometimes kill insurgents has soared to more than 500,000 hours in the air, largely in Iraq, The Associated Press has learned. And new Defense Department figures obtained by The AP show that the Air Force more than doubled its monthly use of drones between January and October, forcing it to take pilots out of the air and shift them to remote flying duty to meet part of the demand. The dramatic increase in the development and use of drones across the armed services reflects what will be an even more aggressive effort over the next 25 years, according to the new report. - - - - Read Full Report
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Keeping an Eye on China's Security
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"It remains extremely important to have such controls in place so that our country's exports do not enable governments abroad to repress the fundamental freedoms that we cherish here at home," What a farce! The fundamental freedoms we used to cherish here in America are long GONE! The only thing remaining is the non-stop barage of deception spewing out of Washington DC.
BE/\LERT!
NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Keith Bradsher - January 31, 2008HONG KONG - Since Imperial times, Chinese governments have relied on neighbors to inform on each other as a way to preserve social control. But with China now becoming wealthier and its citizens more mobile, the government is now embracing the extensive use of street-by-street surveillance technology - and the United States government is becoming less sure that American companies should be playing a central role in the effort. The Commerce Department is drafting new rules on what security equipment American companies can sell to China. The move comes in response to rapid advances in surveillance technology and the increasing involvement of American companies in the Chinese market as the Olympics approach. People involved with the process said the Commerce Department was singling out biometric technology - face-recognition software, in particular - which Chinese security agencies could use to identify political and religious dissidents. E. Richard Mills, the department's chief spokesman, confirmed that the agency had begun drafting new rules, but said it was unclear whether the regulations would have the overall effect of tightening or loosening export controls. Mr. Mills said any changes would have to be reviewed by other government agencies and submitted to public comment. Chinese security agencies are rapidly increasing their spending on video systems with powerful computer analysis tools. American companies, with heavy financial backing from American hedge funds, have played a central role in helping Chinese cities install thousands of street surveillance cameras and use computers to process the video. Congress has become concerned about the export controls on such activity. "It remains extremely important to have such controls in place so that our country's exports do not enable governments abroad to repress the fundamental freedoms that we cherish here at home," said Representative Edward J. Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat who presides over the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. "I will be watching closely as this process develops to ensure that current U.S. export controls are not weakened." Honeywell, General Electric and United Technologies have all been aggressively pursuing contracts in China to sell advanced surveillance equipment from the United States, partly in preparation for the Olympics; all said in statements that they comply with current regulations, and G.E. said that it "would fully expect to be supportive of and compliant with any future changes." - - - - Read Full Report
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Giving Sight to the Beast: All in the name of Safety
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N.C. Company Develops Camera to Catch Graffiti Artists in the Act WRAL-TV CBS5 RALEIGH-DURHAM-FAYETTEVILLE N.C. [Capitol Broadcasting Company] - Reported by Amanda Lamb - November 20, 2007 Youngsville - A local company is marketing a new crime-fighting tool designed to help police catch graffiti artists. Based in Youngsville, Law Enforcement Associates Inc. has created motion-activated hidden surveillance cameras that officers can deploy at known graffiti spots. - - - The cameras record the crime and send text messages to law enforcement officers' cellular phones. - - - From 2005 to 2006, there were more than 1,250 calls to the city to clean up graffiti. This year, that number is more than 2,100. Graffiti is the No. 1 property crime in the United States, Feldman said. Read Full ReportUK: Talking CCTV cameras tell off yobs NORWICH EVENING NEWS, Norwich, Norfolk, UK [Archant Publishing] - By Michael Bailey - January 30, 2008Talking CCTV cameras have been installed at two Norwich parks with the aim of slashing anti-social behaviour. Eight cameras at Waterloo Park and one at Eaton Park have been connected to their own loudspeaker system and, through Norwich City Council's 33- screen, £500,000 CCTV control room, the voice of a camera operator will boom out across each park to tell off those causing a nuisance, committing low level crime and anti-social behaviour. - - - Six full-time operators man the cameras 24 hours a day and there is a direct communication link between the police and the CCTV control room. The talking cameras have been in operation for three months already and have been used by police on two occasions, including the theft of a woman's handbag. - - - "We are not in a police state, we are in a democracy and people understand we are doing it for their safety. This will help make these places safe." Although critics have likened the new talking system to the nightmare vision of the future George Orwell wrote about in his novel 1984, many people believe the advantages are worth it. - - - - Read Full ReportGoogle cameras may help catch a killer HERALD SUN - By Brendan Roberts - December 13, 2007HOMICIDE detectives are hoping an internet satellite camera could help solve the mystery murder of a woman in Victoria. Police now say the woman had been physically assaulted. The owner of a house in View Road, Springvale, and a friend discovered the body while working in the overgrown front yard about 11am (AEDT) yesterday. Police are also hoping a Google Earth tracking van could give vital clues to the death of the young woman. "Google Earth has made satellite images of the area over the past week," Det Maher said. - - - - Read Full ReportBeach cameras blasted as 'creepy,' 'Big Brother' WORLDNETDAILY - November 28, 2007STUART, Fla. - Despite a wave of opposition from some elected officials and harsh criticism from local media, the idea of installing "talk-back" cameras to deter sex on the beach is moving forward. - - - As WND previously reported, amorous beachgoers would be blasted with a bright light and a voice from above warning against sexual relations in public. The voice would come from $5,500 motion-sensing cameras, made by California-based Q-Star Technology. The call for surveillance also comes after several high- profile arrests statewide and nationally involving elected officials soliciting sex in bathrooms. - - - - Read Full ReportCanada: Google's detailed streetscapes raise privacy concerns CANWEST NEWS SERVICE - By Carly Weeks - September 12, 2007OTTAWA -- Canada's Privacy Commissioner has raised concerns over a new Google program that lets users view and zoom in on street-level photographs that are so clear and precise, they can pinpoint an unknowing bystander and their exact location with the click of a mouse button. Google's new Street View application uses photographs captured at an earlier date to let computer users navigate through city streets and neighbourhoods in major cities quickly and easily. But the program, which relies on pictures taken without the knowledge or consent of people in them, seems to violate many basic rights of citizens and poses a serious threat to personal privacy, according to Jennifer Stoddart. - - - "The problem is it's a slippery slope when it comes to privacy rights," said Colin McKay, spokesman for the federal privacy commissioner's office. "You can read house numbers and see street signs. You can clearly see facial characteristics." - - - - Read Full Report
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Billboards That Look Back
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NEW YORK TIMES [NYTimes Group/Sulzberger] - By Stephanie Clifford - May 31, 2008In advertising these days, the brass ring goes to those who can measure everything - how many people see a particular advertisement, when they see it, who they are. All of that is easy on the Internet, and getting easier in television and print. Billboards are a different story. For the most part, they are still a relic of old-world media, and the best guesses about viewership numbers come from foot traffic counts or highway reports, neither of which guarantees that the people passing by were really looking at the billboard, or that they were the ones sought out. Now, some entrepreneurs have introduced technology to solve that problem. They are equipping billboards with tiny cameras that gather details about passers-by - their gender, approximate age and how long they looked at the billboard. These details are transmitted to a central database. Behind the technology are small start-ups that say they are not storing actual images of the passers-by, so privacy should not be a concern. The cameras, they say, use software to determine that a person is standing in front of a billboard, then analyze facial features (like cheekbone height and the distance between the nose and the chin) to judge the person's gender and age. So far the companies are not using race as a parameter, but they say that they can and will soon. The goal, these companies say, is to tailor a digital display to the person standing in front of it - to show one advertisement to a middle-aged white woman, for example, and a different one to a teenage Asian boy. "Everything we do is completely anonymous," said Paolo Prandoni, the founder and chief scientific officer of Quividi, a two-year-old company based in Paris that is gearing up billboards in the United States and abroad. Quividi and its competitors use small digital billboards, which tend to play short videos as advertisements, to reach certain audiences. Over Memorial Day weekend, a Quividi camera was installed on a billboard on Eighth Avenue near Columbus Circle in Manhattan that was playing a trailer for "The Andromeda Strain," a mini-series on the cable channel A&E. - - - Organized privacy groups agree, though so far the practice of monitoring billboards is too new and minimal to have drawn much opposition. But the placement of surreptitious cameras in public places has been a flashpoint in London, where cameras are used to look for terrorists, as well as in Lower Manhattan, where there is a similar initiative. Although surveillance cameras have become commonplace in banks, stores and office buildings, their presence takes on a different meaning when they are meant to sell products rather than fight crime. So while the billboard technology may solve a problem for advertisers, it may also stumble over issues of public acceptance. - - - "I think a big part of why it's accepted is that people don't know about it," said Lee Tien, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group. "You could make them conspicuous," he said of video cameras. "But nobody really wants to do that because the more people know about it, the more it may freak them out or they may attempt to avoid it." And the issue gets thornier: the companies that make these systems, like Quividi and TruMedia Technologies, say that with a slight technological addition, they could easily store pictures of people who look at their cameras. The companies say they do not plan to do this, but Mr. Tien said he thought their intentions were beside the point. The companies are not currently storing video images, but they could if compelled by something like a court order, he said. - - - TruMedia's technology is an offshoot of surveillance work for the Israeli government. The company, whose slogan is "Every Face Counts," is testing the cameras in about 30 locations nationwide. One TruMedia client is Adspace Networks, which runs a network of digital screens in shopping malls and is testing the system at malls in Chesterfield, Mo., Winston-Salem, N.C., and Monroeville, Pa. Adspace's screens show a mix of content, like the top retail deals at the mall that day, and advertisements for DVDs, movies or consumer products. Within advertising circles, these camera systems are seen as a welcome answer to the longstanding problem of how to measure the effectiveness of billboards, and how to figure out what audience is seeing them. On television, Nielsen ratings help marketers determine where and when commercials should run, for example. As for signs on highways, marketers tend to use traffic figures from the Transportation Department; for pedestrian billboards, they might hire someone to stand nearby and count people as they walk by. The Internet, though, where publishers and media agencies can track people's clicks for advertising purposes, has raised the bar on measurement. Now, it is prodding billboards into the 21st century. - - - - Read Full Report
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| Video Ads Are Planned for Grocery Carts |
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ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Jessica Mintz - January 14, 2008
SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) (MSFT) is bringing digital advertising to the grocery cart. The software maker spent four years working with Plano, Texas-based MediaCart Holdings Inc. on a grocery cart-mounted console that helps shoppers find products in the store, then scan and pay for their items without waiting in the checkout line.
Microsoft's acquisition of aQuantive, an online advertising company, last year for $6 billion shored up the company's capacity to serve video ads onto these grocery cart screens.
Starting in the second half of 2008, the companies plan to test MediaCart in Wakefern Food Corp.'s ShopRite supermarkets on the East Coast. Customers with a ShopRite loyalty card will be able to log into a Web site at home and type in their grocery lists; when they get to the store and swipe their card on the MediaCart console, the list will appear. As shoppers scan their items and place them in their cart, the console gives a running price tally and checks items off the shopping list.
The system also uses radio-frequency identification to sense where the shopper's cart is in the store. The RFID data can help ShopRite and food makers understand shopping patterns, and the technology can also be used to send certain advertisements to people at certain points - an ad for 50 cents off Oreos, for example, when a shopper enters the cookie aisle. Microsoft said it is still working on how it will present commercials and coupons. - - - -
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| Dutch open "Big Brother" restaurant to study diners |
REUTERS [Thomson-Reuters] - By Emma Thomasson - October 15, 2007
WAGENINGEN, Netherlands - Does service with a scowl put you off at lunch? Will you eat more greens if you are surrounded by plants? Does romantic, pink lighting encourage you to linger over your fruit salad?
A new research centre -- dubbed the "restaurant of the future" -- at the Dutch university of Wageningen hopes to help answer these questions and more by tracking diners with dozens of unobtrusive cameras and monitoring their eating habits.
"We want to find out what influences people: colors, taste, personnel. We try to focus on one stimulus, like light," said Rene Koster, head of the Center for Innovative Consumer Studies, as overhead bulbs switched through green, red, orange and blue. - - -
The stylish new facility has glass walls, black marble countertops, a polished bamboo floor and self-service tills which allow diners to scan their lunch while they and their trays are weighed by a set of scales built into the floor.
University staff who want to eat at the new restaurant have to sign a consent form agreeing to be watched.
From a control room, researchers can direct cameras built into the ceiling of the restaurant to zoom in on individual diners and their plates. They watch how people walk through the restaurant, what food catches their eye, whether they always sit at the same table and how much food they throw away.
"You're already watched by cameras everywhere like 'Big Brother' so what difference does it make here?" said Bert Visser, a plant scientist eating a chicken sandwich. "Presentation really influences what you choose." - - - -
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For Your Safety? 200 surveillance cameras at Van Dyke houses fail to stop rape suspect
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NEW YORK DAILY NEWS [Mortimer Zuckerman] - By Dorian Block, Veronika Belenkaya and Alison Gendar Daily News Staff Writers - March 21, 2008Once again a rapist was caught on videotape, and once again cops failed to see him, police sources said Thursday. A 19-year-old woman was raped at knifepoint inside the Van Dyke houses in Brooklyn early Thursday - a housing complex with more than 200 cameras supposedly monitored around the clock by the NYPD. Sources told the Daily News that at least one video camera recorded the rapist grabbing the young woman and pulling her into an elevator. - - - "What he did is the worst thing to do to someone," the victim's aunt said. "He is a monster, this man." Police officials believe the attacker is the same man who raped a 30-year-old woman March 6 in the housing complex. - - - What horrified residents was that in both cases, the rapist, if not the violent attack, was caught on video. The suspect who raped the woman March 6 was on camera for nearly 30 minutes, sources said. Roughly 224 cameras feed live video to 30 small TV monitors. Each camera's image flashes for only seven seconds. - - - The video monitors are staffed mostly by cops who are on medical leave or face disciplinary action and cannot carry a weapon. The officers, in the so-called viper units, call other cops to respond to criminal activity. - - - - Read Full Report
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