Lip-Reading Surveillance Cameras

mrogers sends us to Infowars for the following news from the UK, "which is fast becoming the front line of the war on privacy": "'Read my lips..."' used to be a figurative saying. Now the British government is considering taking it literally by adding lip reading technology to some of the four million or so surveillance cameras in order identify terrorists and criminals by watching what everyone says. Perhaps the lip-reading cameras and the shouting cameras will find something to talk about."

Solution

[Apocalypse111]

Quick and dirty solution: Pig Latin.

Re:

[caramelcarrot]

Better solution: Paintball markers. It might be temporary, but frustrating.

Re:

[Xemu]

Quick and dirty solution: Pig Latin.

All they want is to identify the terrorists: Allah and Jihad are the only words the system needs to know.

Re:Solution

[arivanov]

And it will still not recognise them.

Germans found that out in world war 2 and used it. Apparently, no matter how good you get in a language you use different lip technique from the native speakers. As a result a professional lip reader (or a deaf person trained to lip read) will pick you out right away.

Back on the British topic. Just looking at the 7/7 and 21/7 bombers you have more than 4 different ethnic origins - Somali, Jamaican, Ethiopian and various different tribes originally from Pakistan. Each of these will be using a non-standard lip technique. While it may be possible to get some relatively low reading rate by a professional who has unlimited time to look at the tape, a real-time automated system will fail miserably right away. The only ones it will pick out will be Caucasian whites of English origin (I suspect it will fail on Scots and Welsh) who for some unbeknown to us reason have decided to discuss 7/7 instead of Chelsea vs Arsenal (that will probably be 1-2 people in the whole country anyway).

Re:

[Red Flayer]

Or you just implement a differential test to determine which lip movement set to use for a given speaker.

Bigger library, slightly more complex... but would still work.

Re:

[arivanov]

This will be 20+ patterns just for people of Pakistani descent (20+ different major tribal languages from different language groups). Europe - 20+ more. Ex-Soviet union - 20+ more. That is not counting dialects which quite often affect lip technique more than differences between languages. You gotta be kidding. Just calibrating the damn system to different language groups cost hundreds of millions.

Better Solution

[Billosaur]

Train yourself to talk like out-of-synch karate movies...

Re:Better Solution

[Hektor_Troy]

Like this guy [youtube.com]? I think that's completely mess with them

Re:Solution

[Himring]

atwhay teh uckfay you alkingtay aboutay?

Re:

[yams69]

What about the masks that everyone was wearing during the SARS epidemic? I still see those in airports, so it wouldn't be too out of the ordinary.

Actually Klingon!

[SerpentMage]

I was always wondering if we would ever find a need for a language like Klingon... I think we might have found one...

Re:

[bill_mcgonigle]

I was always wondering if we would ever find a need for a language like Klingon... I think we might have found one...

Oh, yeah, the CS geeks who implemented this system would never have stayed up all night to add Klingon recognition. ;)

Evil Ventriloquist Masterminds

[bill_mcgonigle]

OK, I admit I just wanted to use that subject line. But it does seem rather quaint that it'll be Scarface [wikipedia.org] who winds up toppling the British Crown now.

Re:Solution

[Shakrai]

There is also the low tech option and just go inside to talk where they're aren't any cameras....

A good low tech option in my mind would be to vote the dumbasses out of power that think this is a good idea.

Re:

[digitig]

A good low tech option in my mind would be to vote the dumbasses out of power that think this is a good idea.

Unfortunately, many of us see these particular dumbasses as muscling in on the rival dumbasses' territory -- any likely alternative is probably going to be just as bad or worse. Yes, there are minority parties I can vote for, but there are enough people who reckon that if you're doing nothing wrong there's nothing to fear [1] that those parties don't have much chance. As somebody said a couple of elections ago, we're faced with a choice of being forced to eat s*** and being forced to eat s*** with razor-

Re:

[Shakrai]

As somebody said a couple of elections ago, we're faced with a choice of being forced to eat s*** and being forced to eat s*** with razor-blades.

Then do something about it! Run for office yourself. Setup your own party. Try to convince people to vote for the existing third-parties.

Will any of those be successful? Who can say? But I give them a much bigger chance of success then apathy....

Re:

[Who235]

Or don't accentuate every word when you talk...they'll see your lips moving incoherently and won't be able to distinguish what you're saying.

Look at the bright side, everyone in the UK might soon start talking like they're in a poorly-dubbed Kung-Fu movie. That always cracks me up.

Seriously though, these camera developments are getting scarier by the hour. People, it just isn't worth it. No amount of security is worth that kind of BS.

Re:

[malsdavis]

A couple of years ago there was a massive story in the U.K. about a policewoman being shot dead by a group of armed robbers. They would have gotten away with it had it not been for an automatic license plate reading camera picking up the car details a few blocks down the road.

Its instances like that which make such advanced CCTV cameras popular with the mainstream UK public. Polls asking the average person on the street in the UK consistently reveal wide spread support for advanced CCTV cameras.

Re:

[malsdavis]

license plate recognition systems are in use all over the UK. Several motorways (I think they're called freeways in the USA) have several such cameras on them for calculating average speed and hence detecting if speed limit has been broken (i.e. 2 cameras are placed x miles apart, if a car traversed those x miles in under y minutes then they must have been speeding). Thankfully you apparently have to be averaging 30 miles over the speed limit (so travelling at over 100 mph) to get caught by them.

They are se

Re:

[AndersOSU]

Or don't accentuate every word when you talk

So... speak with a British accent?

Re:

[digitig]

I think they might be on to at least a few of the British accents at the University of East Anglia. Rather than accents being the issue, I wonder how many languages the system will have to recognise? After all, most of the terrorist problems we've had recently have been from groups with easy access to other world languages. Assuming the cameras really are about terrorism, not something else entirely.

This will all work fine

[Anonymous Coward]

Until someone invents stealth technology to circumvent it. Like covering your mouth with your hand.

Re:This will all work fine

[badboy_tw2002]

Ah, but then you have something to hide. And they know it and will soon be picking you up to have a chat about it. After all, if you weren't doing anything wrong, why would you care if your Big Brother knew about it? He just wants to make sure you're living a comfortable and safe existence!

Re:This will all work fine

[olego]

You know, I used to think that everyone who said that was being sarcastic and was merely making fun of the government... Until I watched a couple of press releases by the government and realised that these things are actually said.

And that really freaked me out.

Re:

[geekoid]

It's because thjey believe it.
Hell I'm willing to give the people who want to implement the benefit of the doubt, but not the next people who will be in charge.
Get involved.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

It's because thjey believe it.
Hell I'm willing to give the people who want to implement the benefit of the doubt, but not the next people who will be in charge.
Get involved.

I am sooo cynical with your everyday people these days.

Most folks think everyone who's arrested is guilty.

Everyone accused of being a terrorist is a terrorist.

If you don't do anything wrong, then you have nothing to worry about.

Law enforcement doesn't make mistakes.

I'm sure more can be added...

But my point is, those of us who question

Re:

[advocate_one]

Until someone invents stealth technology to circumvent it. Like covering your mouth with your hand.

just like our premier league footballers are doing now to avoid their coaches orders being lifted by the opposition during a match...

Re:

[InfiniteSingularity]

So How long until it becomes ILLEGAL to cover your mouth or try and talk without showing your lips?

Re:

[mikael]

Some Shopping Malls [bbc.co.uk] will ban anyone who covers their
face.

This also applies to People wearing hats in public bars [bbc.co.uk], even if they are pensioners.

It's also illegal to organise a protest in London without first gaining permission from the police first (The SOCPA Act).
Already one man has been arrested for dressing up as Charlie Chaplin and making a silent protest using signs such as "not aloud" and "right to remain silent" [londonist.com]. Another woman was arrested for baking a cake with a statement made using icing.

The incompe

Ventriloquism

[turgid]

So, they're outlawing ventriloquism? They're criminalising Orville [wikipedia.org]?

Re:

[Gospodin]

Until someone invents stealth technology to circumvent it. Like covering your mouth with your hand.

That's where my patented hand-penetrating radar comes into play.

Re:

[S.O.B.]

The Yosemite Sam look is the new black.

lip-read a speaker?

[Red Flayer]

Perhaps the lip-reading cameras and the shouting cameras will find something to talk about."

Sure, as soon as camera manufacturers start putting realistic mechanical lips[1] on their shouting cameras.

And as soon as that is possible, I'd like to license the technology for a venture of my own, involving about 40 lbs of latex and a metal skeleton. It'll be the best prom evar!11!

Sounds vaguely familiar

[rlp]

Just don't ask it to open the pod bay doors.

obvious

[eclectro]

When the lip reading cameras come online, they will see that everyone is repeating this sequence of numbers;

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

some one has to say it

[phrostie]

" Rotate the Pod please HAL "

Mod Parent Up!

[MS-06FZ]

I mean, sure, lots of people made the connection with HAL 9000, but this post actually got the quote right. "Open the pod bay doors" came after the lipreading scene.

Countermeasure

[jbeaupre]

You could easily defeat the system by wearing a burqa or other type of veil. Then you'll never be mistaken for a terrorist. Right?

Re:Countermeasure

[sexybomber]

You could easily defeat the system by wearing a burqa or other type of veil.

Or a Guy Fawkes mask, if you were so inclined. It's more stylish, at least.

Re:

[andphi]

A very valuable variety of evasion, provided everyone volunteers not to violate everyone overusing 'V'.

Protest...

[Fritz Benwalla]

Or at the very least I'd like to see a week where people walk around public areas saying things like:

"I just got this new 400mm lens and I'm going to take some pictures of Big Ben, and then a few close-ups of parliament, and then this afternoon I'm going to shoot the Queen."
or
"I'm glad Parliament has a visitor's gallery, I'm going to plant my bum there at 10:00, and then go off in time for lunch."

Written constitution and bill of rights.

[Palmyst]

That is what Britain needs, yesterday. This unwritten constitution business gives too much power to the political class, and they are obviously not above exploiting it to the max.

Re:

[HomelessInLaJolla]

Having a written constitution and a bill of rights isn't helping much on this side of the pond. The politicians have found that everything can be explained to the satisfaction of the voters by saying "interstate commerce" and "terror". Those voters who aren't sufficiently convinced are gradually pushed into lower income brackets so they'll have to spend more time at work and less time asking questions of their political leaders.

I don't know what the solution is anymore.

Re:

[Rakishi]

The US is nowhere near as bad as the UK in these regards. Also do you have any idea how the US government even works, voters are irrelevant in this regard. The bill of rights and constitution do not prevent any law from getting passed. They allow the supreme court to strike down laws that they deem to not conform to them. Then again you seem to be one of those nut cases who thinks there is some grand conspiracy in place so I guess your knowledge of the US government is average for a person of such views.

Re:

[HomelessInLaJolla]

What you've described is a system which is easily defeated by flooding. You're asserting that Congress has no duty to stay within its defined boundaries and that it is the Supreme Court's job to strike down illegitimate legislation. I think the problem is obvious when there are only seven supreme court justices and over five hundred congressional members.

But don't let the obvious prevent you from insulting me. If it makes you feel better then go ahead and do it to your heart's content.

Re:

[Red Flayer]

You're asserting that Congress has no duty to stay within its defined boundaries and that it is the Supreme Court's job to strike down illegitimate legislation.

No. He's asserting that the Constitution does not prevent Congress from passing laws that violate it, which is true -- just as establishing a curfew for your kids doesn't prevent them from staying out late. Congress, like a kid, will break the rules. It's up to the Court to decide if curfew has been broken. It's up to voters to punish Congress.

Re:

[Red Flayer]

In any other profession it's called operating outside of duties, or insubordination, and is grounds for immediate termination.

Which is why US legislators always maintain plausible deniability.

The flood exploit is obvious when Congress passes close to one thousand new laws every year.

Worsened by the complexity and scope of those laws -- riders, ridiculous clauses, etc.

Re:

[Red Flayer]

Except for that pesky little pledge to uphold the Constitution.

I think we've all learned not to believe the words of politicians.

Then, yes, I know, it's all made better by plausible deniability--but that leads to conspiracy theory, doesn't it?

Not conspiracy theory. Just the theory that our Congresspeople's primary motivation is to do what is best for themselves or their party, not what is best for the nation. Conspiracy implies planned and organized deceit; I'm not sure it doesn't accidentally arise ov

Re:

[Hijacked Public]

Well, the mistake was in putting all the responsibility on the Supreme Court. Any lower court can knock laws down, or change the way they must be interpreted. But in general the system works as described.

While Congress may well have a duty to stay inside particular bounds they often overstep them in practice. The Executive branch does as well, in the event you haven't read any Slashdot articles on anything bad happening at all and noticed that sooner or later someone will blame Bush.

And higher level Federal

Re:

[Rakishi]

Well, the mistake was in putting all the responsibility on the Supreme Court. Any lower court can knock laws down, or change the way they must be interpreted. But in general the system works as described.

Yeah that was a mistake on my part, I should have spent some more time thinking before posting.

Re:

[treeves]

Maybe he meant that two of them are slackers. In that case , no problem: there's only about 4 senators and 8 congresspersons.

Re:

[zrobotics]

While I agree that the UK fares worse than the US in these regards, that still does not mean that there is a vast "conspiracy" afoot in the US. However, it is clear that, slowly but surely, personal liberty is gradually being suppressed in favor of security in the US. While the parent may be a tinfoil-hatter, that doesn't make his point invalid. The patriot act, guantanamo bay, warrantless wiretapping, etc. could all be called unconstitutional. So, while an unwritten constitution provides less protection th

hattery

[HomelessInLaJolla]

I'm homeless. I can't afford a tinfoil hat.

Re:

[Rakishi]

Of course personal rights are being eroded, I find that a sadly inherent consequence of our current society and its direction. My only point is that saying it is a conspiracy is stupid to me, if you don't identify the true reason for something then how can you fight it? I mean if its a grand conspiracy then the only solution is a civil war and anarchy. If those in power are capable of this much organization nothing else would work as they'd easily figure it out.

On the other hand if its due to stupidity, ign

Re:

[symbolic]

Geez...what do you call it then when administration staffers re-write a major piece of legislation the night before it's scheduled for a vote? Ah hell, they were just ACTing on behalf of their PATRIOTic leader, I guess. Sadly, this is marks only the start of a series of end-runs around something that actually does matter...like the Constitution, maybe? Remember - the president is sworn to uphold it, not subject it to gradual deconstruction through self-righteous power grabs.

Re:

[Khisanth Magus]

The problem is that we have no ability to vote on laws. We can only elect people we HOPE will represent our interests when those laws are proposed, and also write to our representative and hope they listen to us. But they can just as easily ignore the people who elected them. Throw in things like attaching bad laws onto other bills that need to be passed and you have the makings for a government that the people have very little say in.

Re:

[Rakishi]

My point was that voters are irrelevant for laws that break the bill of rights or constitution. Thats the whole point of those things, they're there so it doesn't matter if you can convince the voters to support a bill since the courts will strike it down anyway. Checks and balances.

As for conspiracies, I believe in small scale short term greed and stupidity causing large scale long term effects (when combined that is). I don't disagree with behind the scenes actions or anything like that but the person I r

Re:

[Rakishi]

Wow, I've actually managed to make a name for myself.

If you've paid attention you'd have noticed that I don't support these systems but rather simply find most conspiracies silly in general. I find it stupid to attribute things to massive complex conspiracies when simpler answers exist. Likewise I find it even more stupid to attribute it to a cause that cannot be fought (such a conspiracy would by definition be intelligent enough to stop any counter-effort) when other causes imho much more plausible causes

Re:

[geekoid]

well, there is always revolution.

Re:

[digitig]

well, there is always revolution.

As any engineer can tell you, one revolution always gets you back to where you started.

Re:Written constitution and bill of rights.

[psykocrime]

The Constitution ( and the Magna Carta, and the Articles of Confederation, etc., etc.) is just a piece of paper. It can't do anything to defend our rights... we have to do that ourselves. Once the government has made the decision to step outside of
the bounds set for it (by said Constitution) the only choice is for "We The People" to put it back in those bounds, or destroy it.

Revolution Calling? Yeah, you could say that... But we haven't reached a critical mass yet, where enough people *care* about what's happening to do anything about it.

Missing Option

[MS-06FZ]

What about Jennicam?

Not in Soviet Russia

[gnuman99]

This sort of thing was not acceptable even in Soviet Russia. When government included "free" wires radios in apartments where the internet KGB could listen, people would not put up with that BS. But sadly, people will probably do NOTHING in the UK to counter this *literally* 1984 (the book) ideas.

In Soviet Russia, radios listened to people and people got pissed off. In UK, they would just roll over and do nothing. Sad but true from recent examples.

Now time for that popular new hit

[geekoid]

"Fuck you, I'm a terrorist." This single is rising fast on the charts and is on everybodies lips.

Market Prediction

[TheCreeep]

Expect the sales of scarfs in Britain to soar.

Re:

[digitig]

Expect the sales of scarfs in Britain to soar.

With our weather, everybody has at least one already.

Please Run Vista

[happyfrogcow]

Let's just hope it runs on Vista so we can tell it to shut itself off

This mission is too important

[rantingkitten]

Dave, although you took thorough precautions in the pod against my hearing you, I could see your lips move.

Finally!!

[Critical Facilities]

A real reason to grow that combination push broom/handle bar moustache [wikipedia.org] I've been waiting for!!

Be very afraid

[boyfaceddog]

The odds against something like this working ar astronomical.
The odds against it being used in court (or worse, being used to "detain" someone) are just about even.

That means some poor schmuck will end up sitting in a detention cell for a decade or so because he shouted for something and the lipreaders thought he said 'bomb'.

The algorithms must be state of the art

[Sam H]

Since all terrorists have a beard and speak Arabic, the algorithms used in these cameras must really be state of the art.

Re:

[srobert]

LOL, Some of them speak Farsi. If I was modding you'd be funny.

I cannot believe...

[Admiral Lazzurs]

...that this is happening, in the country I live in and the scary thing is that everyone here thinks this is just fine and normal.........

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

East London...

[dark-br]

Oh boy... I would like to see this working on East London... "Know what'a'meeeaaan?"

News..

[Bazman]

Police arrest hundreds of tourists...

What is the motivation for all this?

[pembo13]

I know fear is a powerful stimulant, but the British seem to be willing to do anything to monitor people, what is the motivation?

Re:What is the motivation for all this?

[Anonymous Cowpat]

power - the politicians want power, and have given the police those powers necessary to stop the people objecting in any worthwhile fashion.

The bad thing is

[Cro Magnon]

it won't work against politicians, because they talk out of their asses, not their mouth.

Free Speech

[quantaman]

I could see something like this having a very chilling effect of free speech.

Think if you've ever complained about the police when talking when a friend, now think if you'd still complaining as loudly if a police officer was within earshot.

This doesn't even have to work, a lot of people walking down the street are still going to feel nervous saying bad things about Big Brother if they feel Big Brother is actually listening.

It's all about funding

[Flying pig]

In the US you have endless proposals for blue sky research projects that "might" in 20 years or so lead to something that "might" have a military application. Didn't the DoD even spend money on psychics not so long ago?

Here we don't have big slush funds. (The Govt. can endlessly waste public money on hopeless IT projects, but that's different.) So University lecturers, especially ones from not terribly good universities (have you ever been to Norwich? Don't.), have to try and invent other ways to get funding. Since the Govt. is obsessed with finding terrorists before they manage to get the gunpowder under Parliament again, one way to get funding for a visual recognition project is to suggest it can be used for lipreading terrorists in shopping centres. Of course it won't work, but hopefully by then the guy will have written a few papers and moved a bit up the academic pecking order. And good luck to him. British Government policy with universities basically involves being nice to Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and UCL and stuff the rest. (No, I'm not bitter. My family has degress from 3 of the 4. But I do recognise that it's not a good or fair system)

Missing option: gait detection

[parvenu74]

Perhaps the most interesting and disturbing development in surveillance is gait detection systems [patentstorm.us]. While a disguise will prevent facial recognition from working, and not saying anything will prevent lip reading from doing its job, there are systems being tested and deployed that can identify an individual by the way they walk (their gait). There are so many ways to positively identify people that implantable chips won't be necessary before long [cnn.com].

Re:

[bkr1_2k]

And anyone can fake a limp. Especially one that changes every few blocks so they can't easily be "spotted" by their gait. It's another fruitless effort for "security" that will do nothing except take away your rights.

It's a scam

[DeafScribe]

If the UK goes forward with this scheme, they're getting scammed. I know, from research and real-world experience with people with intensive speech-reading training, that lipreading will yield, at most, about 25% of speech. There are simply too many words that look alike or resist analysis to grasp more than that. You can fill in some of the blanks by the situational context, body language and residual hearing, if there is any. But frankly I see this as an effort to take advantage of gullible government agencies by touting a gee-whiz technological solution that won't work.

Re:It's a scam

[techno-vampire]

I've some hearing loss, and recently took a series of classes on coping with it. Part of it was experimenting with lip reading. Not only do many words look similar, letters formed mostly with the tongue look identical. Look in the mirror, sometime, and say the letters t, c, g and z, and try to tell which one is which. You can't. Now, imagine security droids looking at what the computer thinks somebody is saying and taking it as the literal truth because, as we all know, computers never lie. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Re:

[myowntrueself]

I know, from research and real-world experience with people with intensive speech-reading training, that lipreading will yield, at most, about 25% of speech.

I know someone who is deaf and who is a Japanese/American linguistics student. They say that many languages are impossible to lip-read, including Japanese.

And by 'impossible' they do mean 'not possible', as in there is no way to tell from the movements of the mouth what the person is saying.

Huge Financial Investment

[moore.dustin]

Not only will all of these systems rack up costs in implementation, but imagine the administrative and logistical nightmare. Forgetting maintenance (hardward and software) and all, the investment in manpower will be a nightmare. Who is going to respond to what situation? What deems a situation? What requires sirens, what doesnt? How do you handle the situation... automatic detention pending investigation? Who do I sue when I spend a night in jail for telling my friend I want to blow up my car because it has

So how will this work?

[Irvu]

Will they wait until you are identified as a terrorist and then "switch on the lip-reading feature? Will they have it store all readings on the fly and then go back to analyze them once something bad has happened? Will they "mine" this data on the fly looking for key phrases as they are spoken by some would-be criminal looking at the camera (James Bond style)? Or will they simply use such recognition tech after the fact when viewing or reviewing selected portions of video?

My money would be on the latter

In other news : British Government to set up -

[unity100]

listening outposts up in their citizens' butts. A ministry of internal affairs spokesman said that it was a surefire way to know what passes inside citizens' personal worlds. Spokesman dismissed allegations about the method invading citizens' privacy as being "Ridiculous".

Talking cameras

[Virak]

Nothing quite says "we're watching you" like a camera that actually says "we're watching you".

Man, Many Big Problems

[Slashdot Parent]

1. I'd be willing to bet a lot of money these lip-reading cameras don't speak Arabic. Yes, I know, not all terrorists are Arabs, but enough terrorists are Arabs that they are going to miss out on a ton.
2. Won't be able to determine tone of voice. How can you tell if I'm saying "Let's bomb Buckingham palace!" or "<sarcasm>Let's bomb Buckingham palace!&lt/sarcasm>"?
3. Lip reading is damn hard. Look in a mirror. Say, "All of you." Now say, "I love you." The meaning couldn't be more different... Coul

Expectation of privacy

[Miseph]

So, who, exactly, has an expectation of privacy when they're in public? Yeah, yeah, surveillance bad, privacy good, rah rah rah, but seriously, if you don't want your business to be public, then keep it in private.

Either that, or talk about incredibly private things that are virtually guaranteed to make whatever poor schlub is reading the transcripts incredibly uncomfortable. Or say things that are so unbelievably suspicious that they'll have no choice to investigate, and when it turns out to be complete fabrication remind them it was their ill-conceived idea to read your lips in the first place.

does it matter

[MooseTick]

This must be more of a scare tactic than anything else. We all know facial recognition is less than perfect and have seen several tests in public places fail to recognize any bad guys. I have to believe lip reading is much more difficult that facial recognition. Therefore, this should be totally ineffective for the next decade or two.

If the systems doesn't work, then does it really matter?

one word

[bkr1_2k]

ventriloquism.

It'll be the new thing. All those kids that got their asses kicked in grade school will now be heros.

Infowar == kookery

[Bogtha]

Please, why are you linking to kooks like Infowar? Here is the original article [elecdesign.com], which they conveniently don't link to. Compare and contrast. Infowar:

Imagine a place where if you say something considered by the authorities to be suspicious a team of agents is dispatched to your location to detain and question you.

Of course, the lip reading technology isn't even in existence yet, let alone any kind of government plan to use it or secret police squad. From the original article:

Richard Harvey, a senior lecturer in computer vision at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, is embarking on a three-year project that will collect lip-reading data.

It's just hype to promote a new research project. Infowar seeks out anything that can possibly be used for bad purposes, and spins it out of all recognition. It's a site run by a paranoid kook, not a legitimate news source.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

I suggest mass poetry readings in the streets. The theme: terrorism and terrorist activities. Keep the system overloaded...

Re:Would this work?

[Timesprout]

as in.. Brad Pitt's character in Snatch

Pikeys! I fookin hate pikeys! They are always guilty of something or other so arresting them is OK.

Mods on crack?

[Sapphon]

Woah, Insightful? Did you go for "Funny" and trip? Feel bad that jokes don't boost karma? Or do we really have mods that reckon pikeys are all crooks... based on the movie "Snatch".

Re:

[turgid]

I'm really curious as to how this would work with people who spoke less than perfect English

You mean Muslim Terrorists (the ones not wearing The Veil) and Illegal Immigrants?

Re:

[lottameez]

I said - Did you place the BOMB UNDERNEATH the TRASHCAN???? The trashcan by that surv- ...uh. I'll call back.