In Japan, a Billboard That Watches You 133
An anonymous reader writes "At a Tokyo railway station above a flat-panel display hawking DVDs and books sits a small camera hooked up to some image processing software. When trials begin in January the camera will scan travelers to see how many of them are taking note of the panel, in part of a technology test being run by NTT Communications. It doesn't seek to identify individuals, but it will attempt to figure out how many of the people standing in front of an advertisement are actually looking at it. A second camera, which wasn't fitted at the station but will be when tests begin next month, will take care of estimating how many people are in front of the ad, whether they are looking at it or not."
Seems extreme to me (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously though, a bit sneaky, but fascinating that they want a headcount of who walks by these marketing ads. I wonder if they realize how numb the public is to this by now? I don't know if there have been studies, but it seems to me, the older you get, the less you want, I could be wrong, I am just speaking from personal experience.
Re:Slippery slope (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Slippery slope (Score:2, Insightful)
Every time I've seen your sig "I am the cheese", I almost want to disregard everything else you've said. I understand that child porn is a legislation gateway for something-nefarious(tm), BUT currently viewing child porn IS NOT illegal. In fact, if you ever serve on the jury for a case about child porn PRODUCER, you may have to view some as evidence. What is illegal is 1) paying for it 2) storing or distributing it 3) creating it. In each of these cases, your helping create supply and/or demand, which does in fact hurt children. Currently, accidentally downloading child porn or viewing is unlikely to attract FBI attention, unless you do it a lot (and how can that be accidental?) I mean, if the FBI acted on that, they'd be arresting huge swaths of 4chan members at a time, since that stuff is (somewhat) frequently posted on message threads. If you do accidentally download it, you are probably tech savvy enough, being a Slashdot poster, to clean out your temporary files.
When it comes right down to it, seeing your signature makes me wonder if you are in fact, a pedophile. If you are, and you've never committed a crime, great! but that's your business. However, it still hurts your reputation to have that out in the open and it muddies the real issues.
Re:Slippery slope (Score:3, Insightful)
Some people will say "slippery slope", and others will declare that the phrase is a fallacy. As a shortcut description of the probably course of events, "slippery slope" is just fine. In this case: 1: Billboards watch people. 2: These billboards are more popular and are put into more common use. 3: Information from a billboard cam is subpoenaed. 4: Some bright young chap in politics notices that (a) There are cameras everywhere that could be used to observe the populace, (b) The information from these cameras isn't in use, and (c) He is up for re-election soon and needs some dirt on his opponent. 5: This politician will make a bill to monitor the billboards. Anyone in opposition will be "soft on crime", "unwilling to monitor dangerous criminals", and "must be hiding something." 6: Sooner or later, Minority Report.
You're wrong on #6: it's 1984. Minority Report used people with ESP powers, 1984 used 'TV screens' to monitor the populace.
Re:Have any of you ever BEEN there? (Score:5, Insightful)
Flippant though you may be, I can only see two outcomes for this -
1. Advertisers realise exactly how much they have trained people to ignore everything around them, no matter how bright or annoying.
2. Advertisements quickly become even more completely based around naked female flesh, because that's the only way they get any attention at all.
Re:Slippery slope (Score:4, Insightful)
These who don't know History are sentenced to repeating it.
The credibility is in past scenarios. Copyright. PATRIOT. Communist revolution.
Slippery Slope scenarios tend to be right.
Re:Slippery slope (Score:5, Insightful)
It isn't that slippery slopes tend to be right it is that you have to plan on the people abusing your system.
Building a device and put a stick of dynamite into it. see what happens, build a web site, even a personal one, and watch how often it gets attacked. If your going to plan for the future you need to think ahead. People abuse the things they are given and don't have responsibility of. So if you give some one unlimited powers with no oversight it will be abused no matter the intentions.
So that's it then? (Score:2, Insightful)
.
So once the first person put up the first camera, he thus granted license for 24x7 surveillance of the entire populace? Why should anyone have any problem with it, others are doing it!
I guess I'll go out and murder my grandmother. Hey, I don't understand why this is a big issue as there are plenty of other murders in most major cities.
If someone is unethical, pointing out that other people are also unethical should NOT be a justification.