- Computers That See You and Keep Watch Over You
(iStockphoto)
High-resolution, low-cost cameras are proliferating, found in products like smartphones and laptop computers. The cost of storing images is dropping, and new software algorithms for mining, matching and scrutinizing the flood of visual data are progressing swiftly.
People will increasingly be surrounded by machines that can not only see but also reason about what they are seeing, in their own limited way.
The challenge arises from the prospect of the rapid spread of less-expensive yet powerful computer-vision technologies.
At work or school, the technology opens the door to a computerized supervisor that is always watching. Are you paying attention, goofing off or daydreaming? In stores and shopping malls, smart surveillance could bring behavioral tracking into the physical world.
More subtle could be the effect of a person knowing that he is being watched — and how that awareness changes his thinking and actions. It could be beneficial: a person thinks twice and a crime goes uncommitted. But might it also lead to a society that is less spontaneous, less creative, less innovative?
The personal website of Alex Weber
