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Britain's Surveillance Cameras Get Ears and Brains

by Terrence O'Brien on June 29, 2008 at 05:15 PM

Britain's Surveillance Cameras Get Ears and BrainsIt was less than a year ago that closed circuit television (CCTV) security cameras in the UK were given the ability to hear. Now, in some places, those cameras are getting a major upgrade in the form of an artificial intelligence program that law enforcement officials hope will eventually be able to identify and locate specific sounds. The current generation of software is sophisticated enough for complex image recognition -- it can even identify if a car antenna is up or not.

The next step for the software is to learn to identify the waveforms of sounds, such as a car window being broken. The hope is that the camera will then be able to locate the sound, pivot to spot its origin, and alert the camera's operator. As the software "hears" more it will learn to identify more sounds.

Big Brother isn't just watching anymore, he's listening and learning. [Source: BBC]

Tags: big brother, BigBrother, cctv, crime, security, spy, surveillance, uk

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