[108250] in Cypherpunks
SNET: Sharpening Up Surveillance
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Vladimir Z. Nuri)
Tue Feb 9 22:01:34 1999
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Date: Tue, 09 Feb 99 18:45:20 -0800
From: "Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>
Reply-To: "Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>
From: "Steve Wingate" <stevew@magiclink.net>
Subject: SNET: Sharpening Up Surveillance
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 14:54:25 -0800
To: IUFO <iufo@world.std.com>, SNETNEWS <snetnews@world.std.com>, CTRL@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
-> SNETNEWS Mailing List
Sharpening Up Surveillance
by Heidi Kriz
11:55 a.m. 27.Jan.99.PST -- New federally funded software promises to
double the quality of fuzzy video surveillance camera footage, gratifying
crime fighters but raising concerns among privacy watchdogs.
Developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, the Video
Imaging Tool for Aiding Law Enforcement, or VITALE, samples multiple
frames of surveillance footage, compiles information on the subject from
different views, and then fuses the data together to sharpen the image.
"A lot of law enforcement agencies come to us for technology they don't
have," said Oak Ridge National Laboratory spokesman Ron Walli. "We
believe this new technology will make a significant difference in solving
crimes that would perhaps otherwise remain unsolved."
Researcher Ken Tobin and his team developed algorithms to cut back on
the visual "noise" of video, clearing up the fuzzy, snowy stick-up footage
familiar to consumers of "reality" police television programming.
The technology has already helped put one killer behind bars. In July 1995,
police in Chattanooga, Tennessee, were stymied by grainy footage that
showed the killing of a convenience-store clerk during a robbery. The
police sent the tape to Oak Ridge where, using a prototype version of
VITALE, researchers clarified the image. A suspect was subsequently
arrested and convicted.
The Oak Ridge software package is not in commercial release yet, but law
enforcement officials hope to be using a beta version by the end of the
summer. Beyond law enforcement, the technology has medical-imaging
and satellite-technology applications as well, Farrell said.
But Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the ACLU, suggested that the
technology is not likely to stop there.
"What happens if other government agencies get hold of these videotapes,
and use the images and information recorded not of criminals, but innocent
private citizens?" Steinhardt asked.
"It's part of a rush of technology that is making surveillance more and more
commonplace and affordable," Steinhardt said. "We are going to have to
resign ourselves to either all be living in glass houses, or we need to
introduce some regulatory legislation."
The ACLU has definite ideas about such legislation, according to Norman
Siegal, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. The group
wants laws to limit the amount of tape recorded, distributed, and stored,
and also wants individuals notified when they are being taped.
To demonstrate the near-ubiquity of public surveillance cameras, the
NYCLU mapped the locations of 2,397 surveillance cameras visible on the
streets of Manhattan.
"We need to take an active, not passive, role in deciding how surveillance
technology can be used in public," Siegal said.
"Technology is driving us. We need to get hold of technology."
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Wingate
California Director
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