The Future Is Here Today...Robots, Genetics, AI, Longevity, Singularity

Thinking Surveillance System, Vitamin D Video, Now For Sale

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by Aaron Saenz on February 8th, 2010
vitamin d video surveillance software

Vitamin D Video is out of beta and ready to purchase. Better still, the most basic package is free!

Ground breaking surveillance software, Vitamin D Video, is now available for sale at an impressively low price. I had a chance to review the program’s impressive object recognition and recording capabilities when I covered the beta launch a few months ago. This is a really cool application of limited artificial intelligence. Vitamin D Video uses algorithms based on human brain activity to quickly identify objects in a video feed. By setting the controls, you can specify events that will trigger a recording, an email alert, or an audio notice. Vitamin D not only acts like an electronic watchdog for your camera, it can take hours of monotonous footage and reduce it down to a highlight reel you want to watch. During the beta, testers used the program for some really cool applications you can read about on the VDV site. Interested in getting a copy for yourself? It’s free if you only want to use it on one camera. Two cameras and you’ll have to pay $50. Or you can pay $200 and use as many cameras as you like from one computer. That cheap price tag could launch Vitamin D Video to dominate the small business and home market. Catch a new demo video of the program below.

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Watch the Watchmen With Anti-Spy Camera Technologies

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by Aaron Saenz on January 8th, 2010
$333 for a wireless camera detector? Privacy doens't come cheap.

$333 for a wireless camera detector? Privacy doens't come cheap.

If the growing capabilities of surveillance technology has you feeling paranoid, don’t worry. There are dozens of companies out there ready to sell you nifty gadgets that just might keep others from spying on you. Or, at least, let you know when they are.

Cameras are getting smaller, and it’s a simple thing these days to set up a wireless camera to transmit images to a distant receiver. Luckily for the privacy advocate, you can buy an anti-spy camera scanner that will alert you to the presence of wireless camera signals and help you locate them. Gadget Brando is selling one for $333 that has a small TFT LCD screen (2.3in), covers a broad spectrum of frequencies (900-2700 MHz), and handles all the popular signal systems (PAL, NTSC, CCIR, EIA). It can even run for 3.5 hours on a single set of AA batteries.

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Project Indect Set To Monitor Europe Like it’s 1984

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by Aaron Saenz on October 1st, 2009
projectindect-logo

Project Indect: I like 'security of citizens'. Not so thrilled with 'observation, searching, and detection'.

Excuse me a second while I put on my tinfoil hat and my super absorbent conspiracy pants. In a controversial move, the European Union has given £ 10 million in funding to Project Indect, a wide ranging five year plan to bring passive and active monitoring to almost every aspect of public life in the EU. Hardware and software platforms to monitor public spaces for ‘abnormal behavior’, special search engines for images and documents using ubiquitous hidden digital watermarks, and internet based intelligence gathering that will monitor public networking communities – if you’ve had a nightmare about government invasion of privacy, chances are that Project Indect is trying to make it come true. Yet, as scary as the project may appear, and despite my shiny tinfoil headgear, I don’t find the prospects of this Orwellian endeavor that surprising.

We’ve seen cameras getting smaller, CCTV spreading through the UK, and even projects aiming to incorporate brain scans into security checks. New software platforms like Vitamin D Video are geared at making such technologies more powerful by helping users sort and filter vast information efficiently. The Iraq War has lead to an increase dependence on automated surveillance and response to help combat the increased frequency of surprise attacks, explosive sabotage, and modern guerilla tactics. Project Indect should be seen as part of a larger trend to leverage technology to combat the security threat of the 21st century: dedicated combatants using dispersed violence for an united goal (aka Terrorism).

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Military Surveillance Bot Jumps Over 25 Foot Walls

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by Aaron Saenz on September 21st, 2009
This little robot can jump 25 feet in the air!

This little robot can jump 25 feet in the air!

Holy crap that’s cool! Earlier this week, Sandia National Labs debuted a four wheeled surveillance bot the size of a shoe box that can navigate urban environments by jumping walls. And not just those dinky chain fences with razor wires, we are talking 25 foot high urban bunkers leaped in a single bound. The Precision Urban Hopper uses a powerful piston-leg to launch itself into the air up to 30 times in a mission. That’s a lot of wall-jumping. Check out the short but awesome video. Thanks to BotJunkie for providing the slow-motion replay.

The Precision Urban Hopper was developed at Sandia as part of DARPA’s plans to help minimize soldier casualties in urban warfare . By leaping into battle, the Hopper can relay a view of the battle field back to soldiers so they won’t have to leave cover. That’s a great way to save lives and may be adopted by domestic law enforcement and homeland security as well as armed forces overseas. DARPA plans on having the robot available for testing and delivery starting at the end of 2010.

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Rovio Does for Security Cameras What Roomba Did for Vacuums

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by Aaron Saenz on September 9th, 2009

Rovio is set to watch over your house.

Rovio is set to watch over your house.

The next must-have robot has arrived. Rovio from WowWee is a mobile webcam that uses WiFi to work like a remote security camera on wheels. Access it from anywhere via computer or smart phone and you can explore your home or office with streaming audio and video. Worried about your house while you’re on vacation? Just program Rovio to roam from room to room taking snapshots, and you’ll be able to sleep soundly. Check out a promotional video from WowWee after the break.

There are few examples as fitting as Rovio for demonstrating how humans are building a world of 24-hour hi-tech surveillance. Everywhere we go, we’re going to be watched, especially as people start to use Ugolog. Government security cameras, like the CCTVs failing to stop crime in London, inspire fears of Big Brother. Personal security cameras seem to restore some of the privacy balance by allowing individuals to control the observation in their home or business. In that light, Rovio is an easy, and maybe even fun, way to make the surveillance trend work for you.

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London’s Surveillance Fails – Only 1 Crime Solved per 1000 Cameras

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by Aaron Saenz on September 1st, 2009

London has a million of these cameras. They don't seem to be working.

The UK has 4 million CCTV cameras. Some of them even work.

Some people don’t mind being watched. Apparently London criminals are among those. According to several major UK news outlets, an internal Metropolitan Police report was released last week that admitted less than 1 crime was solved per year for every 1000 CCTV cameras in London. This comes as a major blow to the UK police who spent £500 million between 1996 and 2006 installing 4 million cameras nationwide, with 1 million in London alone. Despite claims that each citizen might be seen on 300 cameras a day, perhaps half of all CCTV camera footage is unsuitable to convict criminals in court. The British public is crying foul, the police force is scrambling to access the problem, and everyone is watching to see what the world’s most recorded country is going to do next.

Whether you like or not, digital observation is only going to get more prevalent in the future. We have faster, cheaper, and more plentiful recording devices everywhere and attached to everything.  You’re already recorded many times a day by private cameras, and that’s only going to get more invasive when implants, facial recognition software, and 3D scanning get going. What’s happening in London, both the wide spread public use of CCTV and the complications from it, is a precursor to what the rest of the world can expect.

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Ugolog Creates Surveillance Website To Watch Anyone, Anywhere

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by Keith Kleiner on April 28th, 2009

big_brother

What if people all over the world randomly decided to setup motion detection webcams and then send feeds from these webcams to a single website that would centralize the video data for anyone to search, view, and manipulate?  Hot off of the heels of our story yesterday about the implications of cameras recording everything in our lives comes a website called Ugolog that does exactly this.  The concept is both spooky and captivating all at once.  The privacy implications are just out of control, opening the door to all sorts of immoral and illegal invasions of people’s privacy.  On the other hand, the power and usefulness of such a network is extremely compelling.

When you go to the Ugolog website you are immediately impressed with the simplicity of the site (I sure hope they keep it this way!).  No advertisements, no stupid gimmicks, no complicated interface.  The site offers a bare bones, yet elegant design that allows you to do one thing quickly and easily: setup a motion detecting webcam and send the feed to Ugolog.  No software is required, only a web browser and a properly configured camera.  Don’t know how to setup the camera?  No problem!  The site has tutorials that tell you everything you need to know.  Once Ugolog has a feed from one or more of your cameras, the data will be available for you and anyone else in the world to view along with all of the other feeds on the site.

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Video 2.0: Tiny Cameras Watching (Over) You

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by Drew Halley on April 27th, 2009

Are you being filmed right now? Are you sure?

Or, more importantly: does that thought make you nervous? You might want to get used to it. As camera technology gets better and better, it’s also getting smaller and cheaper. Digital cameras – a novelty item as little as a decade ago – now surround us wherever we go. They’re built into our phones and our laptops. They watch over our homes and businesses, our ATM withdrawals, and every major intersection of our cities. That red light you blew last week? The ticket is in the mail.

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The Mini DV

Take the Mini DV, the self-proclaimed “world’s smallest video camera” rolled out in Hong Kong this month. About the size of your thumb, it captures up to 8 gigs of video feed and boasts an impressive 2-megapixel resolution. It has a two-hour battery life, and uploads your adventures via USB 2.0. It even clips to your clothing so you can show your friends exactly how “dope” your skydiving trip was.

But the ubiquity of digital cameras isn’t just changing how we document Spring Break. It’s changing how news breaks. The first on-site images of the Mumbai terror attacks last year didn’t come from the BBC or Associated Press; they came from Flickr, with front line coverage by amateur photographers. When Oscar Grant was killed by a police officer on New Years Day, digital video in the hands of Oakland subway passengers captured the tragedy first-hand – and made CNN.

The implications get complicated, and fast.

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