New Big Brother Spy Camera Software Scans For Drunks in Public
September 6th, 2012
(HigginsBlog) – Computer scientists publish computer algorithms to be used by Big Brother’s spy cameras to scan for inebriated people in public places.
You may want to think twice about before you plan on going out in public and getting drunk at your local party resort.
That’s the implication of two new computer algorithms unveiled by scientists that aim to help Big Brother’s Skynet surveillance grid award you with the prize of a trip to the slammer.
Two different groups of researchers have suggested algorithms that can be integrated into cameras systems to automatically scan for and identify drunk people in public places.
These algorithms can theoretically be tied into pre-existing camera systems such as traffic cameras, surveillance drones, trapwire and CCTV systems already deployed across vast areas of the United States and Great Britain.
The first group of researchers have defined an algorithm that works using regular cameras to analyze skin blotches on a subject’s face and then use artificial neural network data to determine if the person is drunk.
The second algorithm is used in conjunction with infrared thermal imaging cameras to compare temperature differences between the forehead and the nose to determine if a person is drunk.
More from Wired.
Infrared-Camera Algorithm Could Scan for Drunks in Public
Computer scientists have published a paper detailing how two algorithms could be used in conjunction with thermal imaging to scan for inebriated people in public places.
Computer scientists have published a paper detailing how two algorithms could be used in conjunction with thermal imaging to scan for inebriated people in public places.
In the paper, published in the International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics, Georgia Koukiou and Vassilis Anastassopoulos of the University of Patras in Greece detail two different algorithms they are working on that focus on data gathered from a subject’s face — alcohol causes blood-vessel dilation at the skin’s surface, so by using this principle as a starting point the two began to compare data gathered from thermal-imaging scans. One algorithm compares a database of these facial scans of drunk and sober individuals against pixel values from different sites on a subject’s face.
A similar method has been used in the past to detect infections, such as SARS, at airports — though a study carried out at the time of the 2003 outbreak warned, “although the use of infrared instruments to measure body surface temperatures has many advantages, there are human, environmental, and equipment variables that can affect the accuracy of collected data.”
A second algorithm is used to map out the different areas of the face. The pair found that, when inebriated, an individual’s nose tends to become warmer while their forehead remains far cooler. To use this information against the database with the first algorithm, a second algorithm was necessary to identify and differentiate between features.
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Image: Drunk tank/Boston Public Library/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Source:Wired
Source: Higgins Blog
