(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick




UK Cameras To Count Your Passengers

from the don't-violate-the-HOV-lane dept

Remember all the controversy over speed cameras that tended to make spectacularly amusing mistakes? Well, that hasn't stopped the UK from trying to move forward with special infrared cameras designed to do even more advanced things, such as counting the number of passengers in your car to prevent cheaters from using the carpool/HOV lanes. The researchers working on the technology claim that it can distinguish between a human and other non-human passenger items such as a mannequin or a large dog. Of course, it's not as imaginative as the CarpoolCheats.org folks, who went around snapping pictures of people cheating their way in the carpool lane, but that site's been shut down by angry carpool cheaters, unfortunately.

2 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments

(Flattened / Threaded)

    Jul 28th, 2004 @ 11:24am
  • No Privacy in the UK?

    by Oliver Wendell Jones

    Wow, between the TV Detector Vans, the Cat Detector Vans (per Monty Python), the security cameras on every street corner and now IR cameras to check for people violating HOV lanes...?

    And I used to think the Patriot Act was making government too nosey...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jul 28th, 2004 @ 12:06pm
  • Urban warriors

    by dorpus

    Visual-light security cams can be sabotaged with the use of high-powered lasers, while infrared cams can be done in with 2-million candle power infrared floodlights. The high-powered laser can also bring down airplanes, make gas trucks flip over, blind people from 5 miles away, oh the fun that can be had.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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