Brooders

Last time we noticed it Traffic Wardens with headmounted Cameras.

Now this time it’s actually the police.

The article Britain to arm bobbies with helmet cams goes into detail:

LONDON — Britain is taking its surveillance to a new level, strapping video cameras to the helmets of its famed bobbies — a move the government says will cut down on paperwork and help prosecute criminals. By providing dramatic footage of victims, suspects and witnesses, judges and jurors will be able to “see and hear the incident through the eyes and ears of the officer at the scene,” Minister of State for Security Tony McNulty said.

I guess this raises similiar questions to the traffic wardens:

1. Will this change the bevahiour of the officers for the better? They know are being watched.
2. In the case of more people’s “word” against the police .. would this video be the ultimate truth ?
3. Would there be an over-reliance on video evidence
4. Who watches the watchers? – Does the public have the right to film the police in the same manner
5. Would a criminal who’d been caught on film resort to extreme violence to destroy the video filming gear and hurt the officer in the progress?

I am not sure the “always on” cop, knowing they’re recording in the public eye, is a good thing. What problem is it solving, reducing paperwork or collecting evidence? I wonder how many things could be taken out of context? Does a defendent have the right for the material to be played in full? Would it be allowed to be edited?

( Via Oreillynet – UK Rolls Out Police Headcams )

Sounds like a tabloid newspaper heading, but it’s kind of true.

The athlete they are talking about is Oscar Pistorius. He’s a double amputee with special leg extensions which allow him to run (and different ones to walk day to day).

Other Relevant articles:

• Double-amputee to compete in Norwich Union Grand Prix 400m @ ESPN
• Why ‘Blade Runner’ has sport on edge of a moral dilemma @ Scotsman

According to Wikipedia the record for 400m Mens is 43.18 seconds.

Oscar Pistorius record is 46.56 seconds.

I think that’s pretty fast.

So the dilemma is whether his “shoes” give him an unfair advantage. From the ESPN article:

Pistorius was given permission to race in able-bodied races by the International Association of Athletics Federations last month but still faces a struggle to take the step up to Olympic level amid claims the curved blades he runs on create an unfair advantage.

Who would have thought that an amputee with special running shoes might have an advantage?

( Via Cyborg runner set to compete against able-bodied athletes @ Sentient Developments )

Most of the time we never really think about technology we’ve been using for a long time. The BBC article The man who invented the cash machine, takes a step back to look at the first ATMs.

This is a classic, about the first ATM “cards”:

Plastic cards had not been invented, so Mr Shepherd-Barron’s machine used cheques that were impregnated with carbon 14, a mildly radioactive substance.

The machine detected it, then matched the cheque against a Pin number.

But why only four digits?

One by-product of inventing the first cash machine was the concept of the Pin number.

Mr Shepherd-Barron came up with the idea when he realised that he could remember his six-figure army number. But he decided to check that with his wife, Caroline.

“Over the kitchen table, she said she could only remember four figures, so because of her, four figures became the world standard,” he laughs.

Mind you, some banks use 6 digits .. but as mentioned in the comments on Schneiers post (link below) maybe other banks don’t know how to use the extra digits?

So .. how many digits can people remember? I guess with four digits .. there only a 3 in 10,000 chance of guessing it before the card gets swallowed by the ATM .. that’s not too bad. So could most people memorise a 5 or 6 digit PIN to make it more secure?

( Via Why an ATM PIN Has Four Digits – Shneier )